The Rise of The Financially Unattractive: The History as to why there is no Wealth Management for minorities and the Working Classes.
By Gibran Registe-Charles CEO/Co-Founder of Urban Edge Capital
“Oi smudge, you filled that order yet, you f*ing monkey!!”
“F*ck you Greg, I filled your mum last night…” was my harsh reply. Bravado was the steel veneer you needed to deal with the constant racist banter from Greg. Finding a weakness was a way of getting you to make mistakes and show others you couldn’t handle the pressure. You had to give it back as strong as you got it, or you would be seen as prey.
I was 25 arrogant and determined.
It’s 2000 and I’m on the equities desk at a large city bank in London. Racist, sexist banter was common and very much institutionalised back then, but never reported, and in my case, it was just one dickhead who was dishing it out. The rest of the floor was sweet.
I was the only black guy on the trading floor. One in a thousand.
Asians yes, blacks no.
My rise to a big city firm as a trader was down to my ambition of becoming a stockbroker 29 years ago when I was 14. I planned my whole educational path toward this. My break came when I landed a university internship at Rothschild Merchant Bank and from there my path into the city was set. The only other black guy who worked in the firm was in the print room, in the basement.
This whole journey with the business, made me retrospective and wonder, how did this all start? What was the core reason why wealth was exclusive to predominately one culture and population within the UK, considering the vast multitude of cultures bubbling around us? Was it just about race or was there a deeper reason? What was the history?
I could go into the history of banking and explain that there were more black and African merchants (even Tudors 1400AD–1600AD), in the 11th and 12th centuries, across Europe who assisted the Italian and Jewish merchants who dominated the banking world from gold mining and trading grain. But this is not the point.
The point of this article is to give a historical insight into the UK’s reasonings, both political and social, as to why BME (Black Minority Ethnics) and the 2018 working class population never had access to wealth management and traditional banking. Even today the underserved community is still ignored and overlooked.
I still consider myself extremely lucky to have persisted and worked in investment banking at a time when it was still a racially sketchy place to be. Racism within banking has been cut out dramatically since I started, and inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated I’m happy to say. But unfortunately, this wasn’t always the way.
No Irish, No Blacks, No dogs. (Wogs need not apply)
Thousands of Commonwealth families were invited by the United Kingdom to rebuild British infrastructure and fill labour shortages in the 1950’s onward. The war had destroyed everything. The economy was shattered, the industry was fragile and the Commonwealth was still under British rule. The invitation to become part of the British way of life was sent far and wide among all her majesty's subjects.
It started with the first arrival of 500 immigrants via The Empire Windrush on June 22nd 1948.
The Black and Irish population was labelled the second UK industrial revolution, as they rebuilt 90% of England’s construction landscape throughout the UK.
The Jamaican RAF were seen as exotic darlings by the British during WW2, RAF heroes. (The 1939 Jamaica Squadron was one of the first Jamaican bomber and Spitfire RAF squadrons).
Thousands of West Indians restructured the very fabric of the UK’s transport, health and construction and manufacturing industries whilst the Irish founded the backbone of UK construction. Yet where never recognized as citizens, never seen as equal on any level.
Unwanted unrest.
1955–58 saw some of the worst racial violence ever seen in the UK. London’s Notting Hill was the flashpoint that woke up the politicians, who laid silent whilst Mosley charged up racial tensions. There were no laws protecting BME in the 50’s and nothing until 1964 & 68, at which point the colour bar was still in effect. It took the mixed Bristol Bus boycott of 1963 and Harold Wilson (Prime Minister at the time) to evoke national change and push through the 1965 Race Relations Act.
But the Race Relations Act did not affect banking or the Metropolitan Police. They were immune. They were institutions unto their own, with their own laws and rules which governed outside of political and social influence.
Institutional racism was flourishing. If churches weren’t allowing West Indians to pray on a Sunday, do you think Lloyd’s bank would open a bank account for them?
The British government quickly realised that their commonwealth promises were becoming a problem. Immigration was a national tinderbox between the Teddy Boys and Yardies and the government quickly withdrew the right to honour any commonwealth passports from any BME countries, thanks to Rab Butler who was Foreign Secretary at the time. Enoch Powell had the country in a firm grip of further racial tension with his Rivers of Blood speech, which caused the Dockers to rally behind him and send politics again into a spin.
80s Backlash
Throughout the 1970’s and 80’s, most firms were institutionally racist and often had “No Wogs” signs on shop fronts and corporates were not employing BME as they cited it would “Upset the female workforce”.
Thatcher’s Britain firmly sealed the fate of the working classes and ensured the financial city would be insulated; this included preventing “undesirables” working in finance. She closed any BME based centres for Higher Education and introduced the entrepreneur culture, closed down the mines and docks, introduced privatisation and reduced the UK to a country of striking and picket lines.
The BME community had no chance of social mobility on any front. Funding was shut down with the idea of if you wanted it, you had to work or create it. With no access to funding for education this was impossible for millions of working class people across the UK.
Pardna.
My grandmother ran one of the oldest and most successful methods of saving money — a 200 years old system called Pardna . This is a cash savings system where each member of the family and friends would deposit a cash amount on a weekly basis and then have the option to withdraw the total group amount the following week — this was a very popular system. Very popular indeed, as most members of Pardna were in their 60’s and the act itself was very social. It bonded members, strengthened communities and was a way of reminding others how far they had come.
1955 Britain was a terrible place for the BME community. Racial tension was at its highest, the colour bar was in full effect, and a sense of false promises was sweeping through the Jamaican veterans who had served and fought for England.
Pardna was the only way West Indians were able to fund buying their houses and establish their own inter-community financial system. This system of saving money, was absolutely crucial in the escaping of slum landlords like the notorious Peter Rachman, who capitalised on their misery by offering them derelict housing known as “Rachmanism” housing. Peter Rachman was the only individual to house West Indians, but the conditions were so appalling, totally rat infested squalor. The current white population, who were the majority homeowners, refused to house “coloureds” on any term, veterans or not. Doing so, they would face social backlash and violence turned towards them.
Rachman housed my Aunty M in the late 50s. Her tales of utter degradation and squalor were horrifying. At that time my mum and granny were working in a plastics factory, before they moved into the NHS.
He was a real tyrant.
The irony is that Rachman owned the majority of W10, to which the West Indian community were the first to populate housing in Notting Hill and Kensington after the war, which are now the richest parts of London.
Financial assistance towards housing or any other basic need was non-existent from any financial institution towards the West Indian community. The social message was, if you wanted housing, go back to your own country.
Education
Generations of BME families were never taught anything to do with the financial system.
It simply wasn’t applied to us. We were deemed “financially unattractive”. Socioeconomic factors dictated that we “had no business” with high finance. Our business was to be submissive and work hard through manually punishing labour.
The BME and previous generations were never educated into the financial workings of banking, saving or investing. This was prevalent in black and West Indian communities. Subsequently, five generations 50 years on are still suffering from lack a lack of financial knowledge, which has led to vast financial exclusion, and the increasing cost of the poverty premium which incumbents have still not addressed. The BME communities have a very different pain point, tied in with a different culture, which isn’t easily understood, although corporate appropriation attempts to tackle, miserably. Our priorities stood with providing appropriate housing, looking after elderly parents and the safe and productive upbringing of children.
The working class and poor, stayed working class and poor as there was no help or incentives to encourage further financial education. Government was constantly shutting down and reducing funding and community based incentives for working-class families to attain free adult education or work placements. Parents were struggling and thus their children had few opportunities, creating a generational vicious cycle. Yet the government and public institutions still blamed these communities for their failings due to their poor education and lack of skills.
From a young age within West Indian families, discussing money was frowned upon and not discussed openly. Credit was bad and wasn’t really understood. Households were extremely strict, especially in my upbringing and growing up in Harlesden, which during the 90’s became increasingly violent. Going to church and playing in my grandmother’s garden was the extent of my outdoor activities. I went to a Roman Catholic all-boys state school. It was tough. Teachers were stretched to their limit, due to poor resources and lack of funding.
No change there!
We were taught about business studies, mainly Alan and his corner shop selling cat food as a loss leader. But money management overall wasn’t covered. Textbook business studies and the standard comprehension 10 questions quiz was the lesson plan. In saying that, we had some brilliant teachers, who lived in the area and understood the difficulties parents had bringing their kids up in such a rough area. Stonebridge and Harlesden were some of the most densely populated West Indian areas in London, which also came with its unemployment that then manifested its frustrations through violence. Crime was born out of frustrations and lack of support, yet still having to find the means to feed their children.
The stereotype that low income immediately means “on benefits” is something that needs to be dismissed. The media demonises the working class and often portrays them with low IQs, although a lot of low-income misery stems from historical governmental changes. 2018 BME and working classes are not this violent unsophisticated mob with low IQs.
Education into financial services needs to be ramped up in our communities, because for generations it has been denied. But the media and society as a whole needs to realise that a new educated breed of investor and financial player is rapidly entering our midst.
New Dawn
In our research, we understood and coined the phrase “Cultural mechanics” Which is how culture transforms into bottom line pounds.
“Culture is the glorious fabric of our society. It is the invisible, creative cohesive element, that binds us to past, present and future traditions through social bonding and integration”.
We need a rich multicultural ecosystem in order to keep creating fair and robust banking cultures. Unfortunately what we see now is a total lack of understanding of BME history and sacrifice. We see financial and incumbent industries with little diversity and no interest in servicing the BME communities.
Not only do we have to battle the internal struggles of BME culture but also educate the youth about the value of making sure we don’t rush for the shiny things without understanding the mechanics of work.
The same way you will hardly see Tristan Farquhar-Bolinger at the Notting Hill carnival is equivalent to not seeing Elroy Brown at Cowdrey park polo or Cowes weekend. Both no doubt are vibrant elements of a culture, but just both very different and serving different communities and values, neither being more important than the other.
With the rise of even more up and coming BME talent emerging through the YouTube universe, it’s understandable that financial institutions should reflect their background and be able to guide them financially. Knowing their background, pain points and the difficult decisions ahead needs to be taken into account. BME has always been sports, media and entertainment, which is a stereotype, and constantly perpetuates itself throughout the generations. Having BME and working class financial leaders must be the next step to ensure talent is nurtured and not abused.
Our role as financial pioneers means we have to address problems not just from the inefficiencies of outdated banking attitudes, but in order to ensure future decades of prosperity. We need to address the cultural issues, which may prevent growth, through lack of access and education and solve deeper issues and provide easy access to the bigger financial system.
This is the ultimate goal.
“Gibbsie, you fancy lunch?” This was often Greg’s way of an apology.
“Only if your mum’s buying Greg…”
