O’Leary’s charm offensive fails to impress Chinese hackers
RYANAIR chairman Michael O’Leary’s charm offensive designed to win over customers hasn’t seemed to reach China. The no frills airline boss, who recently spoke out about the need to improve customer service to prevent “unnecessarily pissing people off,” confirmed yesterday that hackers stole almost £3.25m from its accounts, using an electronic transfer via a Chinese bank.
A spokesman for the company said that Ryanair investigated a fraudulent electronic transfer via a Chinese bank last week.
“The airline expects these funds to be repaid shortly, and has taken steps to ensure that this type of transfer cannot recur”.
Having been fined £500,000 for operating premium rate customer service phone numbers earlier this year, it seems O’Leary might regret saying that, “the war is won, we are the greatest” and accept the karmic low budget ethos: you get what you pay for.
■ Celebs from the world of sport, music and TV, hit the usually hectic BTIG trading floor this week to raise money for the 13th annual BTIG Commissions for Charity Day. The VIP fundraisers who rubbed shoulders with City traders included former England cricket captain Mike Gatting, broadcaster Charlie Webster, Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing and Simon Cowell’s ex- squeeze, and high priestess of 80s pop, Sinitta . The popular charity trading event has raised more than £19m for global children’s charities since 2003. Among good causes chosen as the recipients for the fund raiser are children’s charities Make Some Noise and Rays of Sunshine. All donations were generated from commissions that BTIG employees gave up in the UK and US.
■ Sorry Joe, it seems you’ve been upstaged by Capco consultant Andy Greenleaf in the quest to find the The Capitalist’s fastest City Marathon runner.
Our City All-Stars results board stands at: 1. 02:21:41 – Andy Greenleaf, senior consultant, Capco. 2. 02:22:12 – Jason Cherriman, development consultant, Raymond James. 3. 02:24:10 – Jonathan Poole, middle office, Commerzbank. 4. 02.33.13 – Fintan Parkinson, assistant manager, HSBC. 5. 02:33:27 – Joe Clark, financial engineer, Rabobank.
Kudos goes to our fastest City gal, Thomson Reuters’ Emma Curzon, who also smashed Carney’s time with 03:04:56. Time for a well earned rest, folks.