Do you see blue or gold… or just cold hard cash?

Blue and black or white and gold? During a week in late February this question had lounges, offices and living rooms across the country divided into two camps equally assured that they were one hundred percent in the right. Neither was able to see the dress from the other’s perspective, which resulted in both sides remaining adamant and unyielding in the debate.

One equally contentious issue in recent years (albeit one a little less likely to have Kanye & Kim at each other’s throats) is City bonuses. Many prominent voices in the media, as well as large swathes of the public, view bankers’ bonus payments as having spiralled out of control and being undeserved. While it is true that the industry has made mistakes in the past, critics of the financial industry are perhaps guilty of falling into the same trap as ‘team blue’ and ‘team gold’; not looking at the debate from the other perspective.

The City provides UK PLC with an enormous amount of financial benefit, with financial services accounting for 10% of the UK’s GDP – much more than other European nations such as Germany.

The financial services industry is invisible to much of the public making it easy to see why many fail to decipher its invisible importance.  Its successes are also not hailed in the media, but rather its failings are preyed upon. 

It is not a system clung on to by the industry through sentimentality or for want of another more effective motivation tool, it is proven to be the best motivation tool there is. There’s nothing arcane about it, it’s current and it works.