Christopher Walker: Why pomp has a place in the City

The queue along the red carpet stretched into the distance. There hadn't been such a gathering of the Square Mile's finest in years. As I neared the front of the queue, the Cavalier in me twitched nervously as we passed through two lines of middle-aged men in 17th-century pikemen's costumes, complete with pikes. My Wall Street friend turned to me in shock: "Divine mysticism and nonsense." I understood his point. But at the same time, with so many rainmakers in one place, a lot of business was going on.

New Yorkers cannot get their minds round the existence of two mayors in London. One of them, the Lord Mayor, I know and respect: Michael Oliver is an old banking colleague of mine. He works hard to make his role more than ceremonial. The revival of the "City Banquet" is an example of this – it really was a good idea to have such a gathering – but even more valuable is his office's work in overseas markets.

In seeking to explain the two mayors, the head of the Financial Services Authority, Sir Howard Davies, said: "The Lord Mayor is responsible for attracting businesses to the City of London; Ken, through the congestion charge, is responsible for making sure they can't leave." Generous.

The clothes may be funny, but a visit to the Mansion House is a reminder of the City's extraordinarily rich infrastructure. Along with the many fabulous Guildhalls, it recalls a time when the wheels of the financial industry were turned through a series of com- plex human networks and informal opportunities for interchange. Somehow, we allow this infrastructure to be under- utilised. As if we have forgotten the magic of the ancients.

I've been treading a few red carpets lately. At one of the City's oldest banks a crowd of us waited nervously before Prince Charles swept in (complete with Camilla in apricot leather outfit).

This had not been a good week for the Prince of Wales, his role picked over endlessly. But the coverage failed to consider this question more broadly, for again the Royals play a big role in expanding British trade. The same New Yorkers who scoff at their irrelevance will flock to a charity ball wrapped around a British trade fair.

Maybe this is a good time for the City to reconsider its identity, and to take on board some historic truths. This is the worst crisis we have faced for a generation. In no small measure it comes from a slavish following of US markets and US practice. Can we rediscover some particularly British, or indeed European identity, somehow updating historic traditions without destroying them?

As a child, I one of my first presents was a key-ring embossed with the City motto: "My word is my bond." In an age of corporate scandal and false accounting, this seems a distant memory, encapsulating an old-world belief in personal integrity, where you could buy and sell stocks knowing that the bargain would be honoured.

In the new world, this has been replaced by legal documentation and the concept of what you can get away with. I recently attended a credit seminar which explained the vital importance of punctuation in writing a contract. Post-Railtrack, all investors must study legal minutiae to check that they are lending to whoever they think they are lending to. A comma in the wrong place and your bargain will not be honoured. Football clubs know what that means after the collapse of ITV Digital.

There is debate across the globe over what new rules we should enforce to prevent the repetition of recent scandals. Here, though, perhaps we ought to consider not just changes in rules but in practice. Indeed, we should perhaps return to some of those institutions now regarded as outdated. Why not dress up and swear "my word is my bond"?