Business Diary: Digging deep to help out the Greeks

This newspaper reported last week that the National Bank of Greece had set up an account into which patriots could contribute in order to help pay off the national debt. Now a kind Brit has got in on the act too, launching his appeal to help the Greeks at www.justgiving.com/ savegreece. The bad news for Athens is that only £420 of the £100m target has been raised so far.

Dragons rush to Labour's rescue

As more and more business people sign up to support the Tories' plan to reverse the Government's national insurance rise, who can Messrs Darling and Brown depend on in their time of need? Step forward Dragon's Den stars James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne, pictured, both of whom have dismissed their rival businessmen's warnings of big job losses as without foundation.

The Journal turns on the Welsh capital

The Wall Street Journal is generally a relatively austere organ, weighing up the financial debates of the day in intellectual fashion. The weekend edition, however, featured an hysterical account of Britain's battle against binge drinking, with reporting from Cardiff – which the paper seems to regard as the capital of alcoholism. "Raucous partying routinely turns the weekend streetscape here into a scene from 'Night of the Living Dead'," it says.

The local bank that angered the locals

HSBC, the self-styled "world's local bank", at least had the decency to apologise after misspelling the name of Lowestoft on its branch in the Suffolk town. "Welcome to Lowerstoft, a branch of the world's local bank", its first attempt read. "We have to hold up our hands and say we made a mistake," a representative of HSBC says. "We are sorry."

Syracuse Uni concern over Jamie Dimon

Having one of the biggest names in banking as commencement speaker would be a feather in the cap to most US universities. Not Syracuse, which, according to Dealbreaker, has had "concerns expressed" over its choice of Jamie Dimon, pictured, head of JP Morgan.

Number of the day: £100

The smallest withdrawal Nationwide is to allow customers to make over the counter in branches with an ATM.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk