The loan market gossip piece captures the other flavour of last week!

Loan Ranger
Issue: 1024 - 5 October 2007

Tonto’s head is spinning. And not just from all the globe-trotting he has been up to recently.

Fresh from Bank TuranAlem’s Interbanking conference in Almaty, he is still dizzy from the closing extravaganza, where he found himself caught up in an explosion of disco lights and sensational pop tunes, and an almighty eruption of ticker tape.

Masked dancers swirling, capes afloat, in celebration of BTA’s unveiling of its new logo, a magician twirling around with his scantily clad assistant, liquidity flowing in the form of gallons of champagne...

"Is that a banker I see over there, waving his arms to YMCA?" gasped Silver.

"Yup! I’m not sure whether we should name names, because frankly we looked just as silly," said Loan Ranger, but Ben Dobson from Deutsche Bank did a remarkable John Travolta impression.

"Well he ain’t the only one I’ve seen doing the Twist and Shout," Tonto butted in. "I think Commerzbank’s Eric Zimny and his Kumpels were trying to dance too, although they weren’t very convincing."

To put the record straight, Loan Ranger should add that it was virtually impossible to avoid dancing at the event, as BTA’s team was on a mission to force every last malcoordinated banker and guest on to the floor.

The evening’s gaiety and good cheer was carried through to the conference and serious stuff, where a jolly atmosphere reigned amid whispers of a few loan market problems. Loan Ranger has a sneaking suspicion this had something to do with the girls in golden hot pants milling around the coffee area.

This, apparently, was where the networking was happening, and it’s true that there weren’t as many bankers actually watching the discussions panels as there were networking around the golden girls’ Unistream stand.

One observer, who will remain unnamed, remarked that "it was good to see that at least the fundamentals remain firm". We were not sure whether he was referring to the Kazakh banking system.

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