Bubbly provides some light relief

Hats off to London-based HSBC Investment Bank worker, Mr David Raye, who receives the Margin's honorary prize as the week's "…

Hats off to London-based HSBC Investment Bank worker, Mr David Raye, who receives the Margin's honorary prize as the week's "closest reader of dense texts".

Mr Raye was the first to spot the following sentence, which appeared on page 220 of Don Cruickshank's scathing 350-pager on overcharging by British banks: "The author would like to offer a bottle of Krug champagne to the first reader to send an e-mail to the [Banking] review's website citing this paragraph."

Mr Raye duly contacted Mr Cruikshank, whose report said British banks are making "excess profits" of between £3 billion sterling and £5 billion.

The Margin, who has read his own fair share of dense texts, has nothing but admiration for Mssrs Cruikshank and Raye, neither of whom let the seriousness of the banking review go to their heads, as it were.