FX

I am so easily distracted - as if you were unaware of the fact!  Yesterday's post demonstrated what I mean, although at least I kept pretty much to an alternative meaning of the title.  That, I suppose, means that I could have got away with it and you might not have realised...  I'm doing it again, aren't I?

So.  Foreign exchange.  By which I really mean foreign currency exchange. I am, I suppose, declaring nerdish tendencies when I confess that I have long found foreign money of interest and I have been extraordinarily lucky when it has come to a matter of changing one curremcy into another.  An early example of both my nerdish tendency and my ability to make a profit, albeit small, on foreign exchange occurred when I was working at one of the mid-Sussex branches of the bank.  Back in those days there were very few branches of banks which kept foreign currency on the premises.  They would buy francs, dollars, pesetas etc from customers but would send them to a dedicated 'foreign' branch the same day.  If a customer was going on a trip to another country, the currency could be ordered and would take a few days to arrive.  But my colleague Neal was probably just as nerdish as me and also saw an opportunity so we persuaded the branch manager that a foreign currency till - in other words, a full bureau de change service - would be of benefit to our existing customers, would bring in customers of other banks who might then transfer their accounts, and would increase the branch profits.  The manager agreed and was able to persuade the local directors of the benefits so we opened a foreign till.

After I had left the bank and started as general manager and dogsbody at the newspaper company, I took things a step further.  The paper offered readers postal subscriptions with prices specified in US and Canadian dollars as well as sterling.  I got rid of the Canadian dollar price and set about reducing our costs in exchanging dollar cheques into sterling.  I realised that exchanging each individual cheque through our London bank was unnecessarily costly.  So I opened a bank in New York into which all dollar cheques were deposited.  When the US bank balance had built up and the rate was favourable, I would transfer funds to the UK.  All this made little difference to the company's profit and loss account, but it was enormously satisfying to be playing the game.  Not only playing the game, but winning as well.

Before we bought our French cottage, I realised we would need an account with a French bank which would have to be fed from England.  Over the years, I have kept an eye on the exchange rates and have generally managed to transfer funds when the rate was about as good as it got over a few days either side of the transfer.  The rate has fluctuated dramatically.  Ten years ago, when we bought the cottage, I got more than 1.5 euros to the pound - which made a big difference to the cost in real terms as it meant that the 40,000 euros price translated into £27,000.  As I say, I have generally been lucky - and it has been luck rather than skill - with the exchange rate.  But like Buck and his tax, I look at what I have sent to France and think, "That's a dinner out we can buy that we couldn't last time".  Or the other way round.  I recently sent some money over at an abysmal rate but the pound has grown steadily weaker since then so maybe I didn't do so badly after all.

~~~~~

I can't say that the snowdrop is my favourite flower but I'm always happy to see the blooms in the garden.  Ours, which are not the earliest, are much earlier than those in Withdean Park and have started coming into bloom this week.  There are other flowers which have been out for quite a while - Christmas rose, cyclamen, winter jasmine - but I regard all those as winter flowers.  The snowdrop is hardly a spring flower but I always think of it as such.  Or, more accurately, as a harbinger of spring.