Harry makes a record trade as Princes visit broker to mark 9/11

 
Traders for a day: Princes William and Harry

Prince William and Prince Harry cracked jokes with each other as they made multi-billion pound deals for charity on a City trading floor today.

Harry secured a record £21 billion foreign exchange trade while teasing his elder brother about his non-stop “baby chat”.

The princes were at top brokerage firm BCG Partners in Canary Wharf to raise money in memory of people who died in the Twin Towers on September 11.

Trade day: Harry and a broker

Harry remarked to traders about his brother: “He’s on the phone and it’s all baby chat.”

He then turned to William and said: “Stop flirting, get on with it!”

One broker, Neil Fordham, called William a “natural” on the telephone.

“He even made a bit of a joke,” the 45-year-old from Abridge in Essex said. “He said, ‘It’s all a wind-up, I’m Gary’.”

The annual event is held to commemorate the 658 employees of BGC’s former company, Cantor Fitzgerald, who were killed in the World Trade Center attacks.

Some of Britain’s leading actors, singers and sportspeople also hit the phones to make trades.

On the phones: The princes place deals

They included actors Idris Elba, Thandie Newton and Sean Bean, singer Rod Stewart, England rugby captain Chris Robshaw and Tottenham manager André Villas-Boas.

Elba had traded more than £750 million as he spoke to surprised clients across the world.

He said: “It’s been really good, chaotic. One guy asked me to speak to his wife.”

William and Harry headed straight from Canary Wharf to Essex where they joined their father at the funeral of one of his closest friends.

Prince Charles was said to be “hit very hard” by the death of conservationist and businessman Hugh van Cutsem earlier this month.

Mr Van Custem’s funeral was being held at Brentwood Roman Catholic Cathedral this morning.

The 72-year-old businessman - whose four sons are close to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry, formed a strong bond with Charles after they met at Cambridge University in the 1960s. He died after a long illness.

He had been a trusted, discreet friend and mainstay of royal events for more than 50 years and was a confident during the Prince’s marriage break-up with Princess Diana.

Like the Prince of Wales ,Mr Van Cutsem was a keen conservationist and owned a 4,400-acre estate on Norfolk’s Brecklands where the family live.

Estate workers turned up in their country attire for the funeral today which was held amid tight security.

Mr Van Custem leaves behind his wife of 42 years Emilio and four sons, Edward, 40, Hugh, 39, Nicholas, 36, and William, 33. One is likely to be a godfather to royal baby Prince George.

Edward was a pageboy at the wedding of Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, while the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh attended the 2004 wedding of son Ed to Lady Tamara Grosvenor.

Mr Van Cutsem’s five-year-old granddaughter was a bridesmaid at the Royal wedding in 2011, catching the attention of the public when she appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony covering her ears.

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