Bankers' G20 message: We're not pansies

Graham Williams, a company director, has a warning for protesters planning to bring London's financial district to a standstill this week: "We're not all pansies."

As officials in the City of London advise financial workers to dress down and avoid confrontation with demonstrators from groups such as the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination and Anarchist Federation, some bankers and brokers are pledging to keep their suits crisply pressed and ties firmly knotted.

"Most us have played rugby or boxed," said Williams, 66.

"If any of those guys do get violent against us individually because we're wearing a suit, we will take action."

Protesters plan to target London bankers for their role in the financial meltdown as G20 leaders gather in the city to discuss their response.

Police estimate 1500 campaigners will try to block roads and prevent people from getting to work in central London, home to the London Stock Exchange, Bank of England and the European headquarters of JPMorgan Chase, on April 1 (UK time), which protesters have dubbed Financial Fools Day.

"What we're seeing with these groups is certainly an intention to cause us problems or to cause the city's institutions problems," Commander Bob Broadhurst of the Metropolitan Police said.

The London Chamber of Commerce is advising employees of financial firms to stagger their arrivals, cancel meetings and shed their suits to lessen the impact of the protests.

About 300,000 people work in the City, mostly in financial services, according to the City of London police.

Alan Cornelius, 81, who was wearing a red tie and blue-striped shirt, vowed campaigners wouldn't make him change the sartorial habit of a lifetime in a city where Savile Row tailors hand stitch bespoke suits for Princes and financial royalty.

"I'll be wearing a suit all next week," said Cornelius, a company director. "All I've got otherwise are my gardening clothes."

Britain got a sample of the protests last week when vandals smashed windows at the Edinburgh home of Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive officer of Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Someone claiming responsibility emailed the Edinburgh Evening News, saying "Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning."

Goodwin has been a lightning rod for anger as lawmakers demanded he return a portion of his 703,000 ($1,780,973) annual pension after leading the bank into almost financial ruin.

The Government has spent more than 40 billion to rescue RBS and Lloyds Banking Group after credit markets froze.

More Britons joined the jobless rolls last month than at any time since 1971 as 138,400 people sought unemployment benefits. The economy shrank the most since 1980 in the fourth quarter.

James Hale, a property consultant who works in the West End, said the outrage toward bankers was justified.

"It's getting back at the fat cat City people who seem to make a lot of money for doing nothing and now we're finding the taxpayers are financing them all," said Hale, who doesn't plan to venture into the financial district this week.

When financial workers were targeted in anti-globalisation protests in 1999 and 2001, some responded by showering crowds with photocopied 50 notes and drinking champagne, the Guardian newspaper reported last week. This time some are reluctant to enter the area.

"The previous round of these was much nastier than we expected so I am concerned," said Nigel Cornish, an account director. He said it was "too simplistic" to blame the financial crisis on City bankers.

"Which of us said, 'I don't want my pension fund to grow?' Which of us didn't want our house price to grow?" he said. "The idea that it was five guys in the City is just bonkers."

Jonathan Van Der Molen, a managing director of an asset recovery business focusing on property, will avoid the financial district this week and work out of his office in Mayfair.

"We're by the American embassy so will be well protected," he said. "I suspect it will just turn into the usual anarchic nonsense that we tend to see from people who have got nothing better to do with their time."

A spokesman for the Bank of England said the central bank was taking steps to ensure that it could operate normally.

UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, will have "appropriate" measures in place at its London offices, a spokesman said.

The City district hosts "a warren of small businesses" that don't have the same security resources as international corporations, said Colin Stanbridge, chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce.

Glen Corney, a performance analyst at an information company, says he probably won't swap his suit for more casual attire.

"Everybody's in the 'burn the banker' mob mentality, disappointed and feel they've been let down by the system," the 35-year-old said. "But a cynical part of me makes me think that the general apathy in society is going to make it not as big a protest as there was before."

Williams, the insurance director, said he grew up in a public housing project and has spent most of his working life in the City of London. He vowed that if events turn violent protesters wouldn't get an easy ride.

"When we've had problems in the City before some of those guys got as good as they gave," he said. "And they won't forget that."

- BLOOMBERG