News
Prince Harry attends the BGC Trading Charity Day
12th September 2011
Prince Harry broke the world record for the largest foreign currency trade today as he joined a host of celebrities for a fundraising day in the City.
His Royal Highness closed a foreign exchange deal worth 18 billion euro (£15.5 billion) at the BGC Partners charity day in London's Canary Wharf.
The Prince attended the event on behalf of Sentebale, the charity he co-founded to support vulnerable children and orphans in the southern African country of Lesotho.
He took to the telephone to complete the deal between Barclays London and a European counter-party based on projected currency values between September 13 and 14.
The fundraising day was established by BGC, a global inter- broker dealer, in memory of staff from its sister company, investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, who died during the 9/11 attacks in New York.
The firm lost 658 employees - more than any other organisation including the fire department of the city of New York.
All victims of the attack were commemorated in both New York and London yesterday to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
Robert Sully, a broker on the foreign exchange desk who handed the phone to The Prince, described his performance as "brilliant".
Prince Harry chatted away to a trader from Barclays on the other end of the phone using the complicated language of the trading floor.
Mr Sully added: "We told Harry to say '28 year choice' which means you can buy or sell."
The planned trade went through and the BGC trader described it as the biggest forward foreign exchange deal in history.
His Royal Highness beat the record set by his brother The Duke of Cambridge last December who completed a foreign exchange trade worth 17 billion Euro during a charity day organised by City firm ICAP, an inter-dealer broker.
The Prince was joined on BGC's trading floor by celebrities from the worlds of film, television, sport, politics, fashion and music to raise millions for 29 UK charities.
All revenues generated during the course of the charity day are donated to the 29 good causes.
The Prince, who is a trainee Apache helicopter pilot, spent nearly an hour completing a number of deals and enjoying some banter with the traders who had exchanged their City suits for red rugby tops.
Prince Harry praised the BGC staff during a pause in the trading: "It's great to see everybody making an effort on Monday morning."
Speaking about his charity Sentebale, he added: "We're doing as much as we can in the time we've got available, but the fact these guys have chosen us as beneficiaries is absolutely fantastic."
As The Prince toured the floor he met model Eva Herzigova who was also trying to complete a deal and the pair exchanged a few words.
Earlier, before arriving on the trading floor, The Prince was taken around a small zoo set up at the City firm to entertain children helped by some of the charities which will benefit from the fundraising.
Among the charities and good causes benefiting from the day are Barnardo's, Children In Need and Great Ormond Street Hospital.