I am proud to say that Roger was actually one of the first investment bankers I got acquainted with at the beginning of my career in finance when working for a big industrial company’s finance management in the 1980s. The institution which I represent, the Bank of Finland, has had direct contacts with the City of London for more than 150 years now.
It was year 1861 when the Bank of Finland first opened correspondent accounts with the London bank, N.M. Rothschild & Sons. That correspondent relationship was our first outside the Baltic Sea basin and reflected commercial contacts with Britain as well as the desire of the Finns to take part in the growth of international finance.