LOOSE CHANGE

The Forex Club of Japan has left nothing to chance in the meticulous arrangements for next month's 37th annual congress of the Association Cambiste Internationale (ACI ) in Osaka. Forex '95 is the third time Japan has hosted the annual ACI bash, the previous occasions being Nagoya in 1991 and Tokyo in 1987. By comparison with 1987, attendance this year is down -- 1,050 participants from 56 countries compared to 2,200 eight years ago. A star-studded programme of speakers has been organised for the conference but a striking feature of the final detailed agenda is the emphasis on musical entertainment -- among those serenading delegates will be the Daiwa Bank Choral Society. They will no doubt bring beams of pride to the face of organising committee chairperson, Takashi Motohashi, whose other role in life is general manager of the international treasury at Daiwa Bank.

JP Morgan held a champagne reception at the Great Hall in its London branch headquarters (part of which was once a school) last week to raise funds for the Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund. The £45-per-head event, which included a fashion show and a silent auction, was expected to raise some £25,000 for the Fund, which is the London branch's selected charity for the year. A Morgan official says the bank has already raised £250,000 so far this year for the charity, through other events and initiatives such as a joint scheme with Virgin Atlantic, which has been donating foreign change collections. On special "dress-down days", London employees donate £2 each to come into the office in casual clothes; on other days the JP Morgan London canteen has given the day's proceeds to the charity, says the official.

Dressing down appears to be a major topic of conversation among traders at SG Warburg as they gird their loins for their planned £860 million acquisition by Swiss Bank Corp. Swiss Bank staff abandoned formal City attire 18 months ago and insiders now predict that Warburg will follow suit as soon as the ink is dry on the acquisition paperwork. The culture change is not entirely welcome, however, since as one Warburg source wails: "I'll have to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe." Meanwhile the executive behind the decision to go casual at SBC in London, Rudi Bogni, 47-year-old head of U.K. operations, has decided to go back to school. He is taking a two-year sabbatical to study advanced financial mathematics at the Centre for Quantitative Studies at London's Imperial College. "The dress code here is very casual," says a College spokesperson.

London's unpredictable weather put a slight damper on otherwise pleasant festivities last week to mark the "official" press opening of Royal Bank of Scotland's new London head office in the renovated Victorian Gothic splendour of the old Prudential Insurance building on High Holborn, seven months after the dealers moved in (FXW, October 31). Hoping, as one might, for sunshine in London in the middle of May, RBS held a cocktail party in the new building's spectacular skylit atrium. But guests found themselves incongruously sipping Pimms cup under grey and rainy skies -- feeling sympathy for the bagpiper shivering in the wintry courtyard outside.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is changing the open of Mexican peso futures and options trading from 7:20 a.m. (Chicago time) to 9:00 a.m. The move is meant to make trading hours more consistent with those in Mexico (which starts at 10:00 a.m. Chicago time), says a Merc official.