London's largely-male banking community has a new way to pass its time, now financial markets have collapsed. According to Lucy Kellaway at the Financial Times, many are prospecting for adulterous affairs on a website called Illicit Encounters.
Lucy says she has "picked up 247 men" since joining - including "a formerly powerful hedge fund manager, scores of newly idle bankers, a few entrepreneurs, various company directors, a well-known musician, some corporate lawyers, a couple of barristers and a rather dishy builder". One of her girlfriends gained 295 new "boyfriends" after just one week.
Its good business for the website's owners, who charge men £119/month ($175), whilst women join for free. Common sense would surely tell these men that the odds are against them? But, as we all know to our cost, common sense is exactly what many bankers seem to lack.
It all reminds the blog of the hedge fund manager it reported on last year. His £80k (then $160k) Maserati was about to be crushed because he'd been "too busy" to remember he'd parked it illegally.