Banking is fertile ground for short stories

The fictional 'No Tears: Tales from the Square Mile' does not portray the financial services industry in an entirely favourable light.

Colleagues scheme to cheat one another out of bonuses; a female managing director engages in risky relationships with a number of men; and a novice trader fed up with taunts on the trading floor lets a machine-gun do the talking for him.

Charters, a former managing director in equity capital markets at Deutsche Bank, says the banking industry provides rich subject matter. 'The City tends to expose the fault lines in human nature. Big money and limited loyalty to the firm create an interesting combination of greed and fear.'

Students thinking of going into banking may be dissuaded by stories like 'The Big Break', in which a Cambridge graduate thinks he's getting a chance to impress his boss, but ends up getting bumped off by a Russian client who is angry about a low valuation put on his company.

Charters does not pretend that his stories are based on true events. But he says there are echoes of reality.

Initiation rites on trading floors can be harsh, graduate trainees are treated maliciously and bonuses are often allocated with a view to retaining mobile employees instead of rewarding loyal performers.

'The City takes the brightest people from the best universities and does terrible things to them,' Charters reflects.

The book was conceived during quiet mornings on a deal in Frankfurt when Charters was with Deutsche Bank.

John Mclaren, a fellow partner at the Barchester Group, provided encouragement to take the stories to a publisher.

Mclaren sold the film rights for his own first novel to Universal Studios.