Bunhill: Purview

EARLIER this year, Andrew Purves decided to open a furniture shop in Tottenham Court Road, in London. He formed a company called Purves & Purves and applied to Midland Bank for a loan. Any caution the bank must have felt - opening a furniture shop was hardly the thing to be doing in the midst of a deep recession - was no doubt soon dispelled when a sharp-eyed Midland employee ordered a check, just to be safe, that this was not the Purves who chairs Hongkong Bank - which has bought the Midland.

It was - Andrew is the son of Willie Purves, Hongkong's chairman and now Sir Willie in the New Year Honours. The boy got his loan.