Traditionally, when British bankers joined a City livery company, they would become members of the Goldsmiths - while central bankers have often been Mercers, first livery company in order of precedence. Commercial bankers did not have their own guild. They had various dining clubs, such as the Overseas Bankers Club, but this never had aspirations to be a livery company and has been wound up. Then Sir Paul Newall, a lord mayor of London, who hails from a brokerage background, had the idea of