Business Diary: 22/05/2010

Royal Bank of Scotland's blocked toilet

More bad news for Royal Bank of Scotland which lost all power for a short period on the crucial trading floor of its North American headquarters yesterday – hardly ideal in these volatile market conditions.

The gossip is that the outage was caused by a blocked toilet on the floor above the trading desks, which then overflowed, sending sewage spilling into a crucial communications room.

The wrong time to start selling in Greece?

The baby goods company Mamas & Papas is one of Britain's export successes, but its latest overseas deal may take a little time to pay off. It announced yesterday that it has signed a contract to supply its goods to the Greek retailer Lapin House, with its products to be made available in 27 stores across Greece and Cyprus. Well done them. But it might be best to wait until the Greeks stop smashing up their shopping centres though.

The internet giant with a big appetite

Google celebrated the 30th anniversary of Pacman yesterday by installing a mini version of the popular computer game on its home page. The internet giant has already moved into television, mobile phones and a string of other technologies, so a video game venture of its own surely wouldn't be out of the question. It can't be much longer until Google gobbles the whole world.

Football does its bit to ease the financial crisis

At last some happier tidings for Europe's beleaguered economy and particularly Spain. The credit card giant Mastercard reckons that tonight's European Champions League final is set to generate a €94m windfall for the economy of Europe, with €50m of the benefits going to Spain alone, because the match is being played in Madrid. Maybe they should start playing all European finals in the zone's most indebted nations.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk