It’s been a gripping year, with a banking crisis, the departure of two heavyweight FTSE 100 chief executives and the sight of private equity sharks sinking their teeth into our best loved firms.
But there were also signs of stability, with cooling inflation sparking hopes that the economy can revive itself in 2024.
Think you know the score? Test your knowledge of the past 12 months in our City quiz.
1 What is the name of the NatWest chief executive who resigned this year over the Nigel Farage debanking row?
A) Alison Rose B) John Rose C) Alison Hammond D) Alison Brittain
2 Where did Birkenstock list its shares?
A) Frankfurt B) London C) New York D) Amsterdam
3 Who eventually bought The Body Shop?
A) TDR Capital B) Carlyle C) Aurelius D) KKR
4 Who is the chief executive of X, formerly known as Twitter?
A) Jeff Bezos B) Elon Musk C) Linda Yaccarino D) Poppy Gustafsson
5 How much was the record fine handed by gambling regulators to William Hill owner 888?
A) £9 million B) £19 million C) £90million D) £900 million
6 Which bank saved Credit Suisse?
A) HSBC B) UBS C) Lloyds D) Nationwide
7 Who was the highest-paid FTSE 100 boss last year?
A) Charles Woodburn, BAE Systems B) Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca C)Bernard Looney, BP D) Erik Engstrom, Relx
8 How much does a FTSE 100 chief executive earn compared to an average full-time worker’s salary?
A) 18x B) 80x C) 118x D) 180x
9 Which newspaper did THG boss Matt Moulding buy?
A) The Telegraph B) Yorkshire Post C) Manchester Evening News D) City AM
10 How much did Bernard Looney lose after he was forced out of BP?
A) £320,000 B) £3.2 million C) £32 million D) £320 million
11 Who is the new president of the World Bank?
A) Janet Yellen B) Ajay Banga C) Indermit Gill D) Vindi Banga
12 Which former Bank of England bigwig endorsed Labour Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves?
A) Mervyn King B) Jerome Powell C) Mark Carney D) George Osborne
13 How many times in a row did the Bank of England raise interest rates since December 2021?
A) 4 B) 6 C) 10 D) 14
14 How many Chancellors of the Exchequer have there been since George Osborne?
A) 3 B) 4 C) 6 D) 10
15 What does the ‘E’ in ESG stand for?
A) Entrepreneurial B) Ecological C) Economical D) Environmental
16 Which tech company fired and then re-hired its boss Sam Altman within a week?
A) Space X B) OpenAI C) ClosedAI D) Microsoft
17 Nick Ephgrave was a member of which police force before he became Serious Fraud Office chief?
A) South Yorkshire Police B) Greater Manchester Police C) British Transport Police
D) Metropolitan Police
18 Tufan Erginbilgic left BP to join which FTSE 100 engineering group?
A) Melrose B) Johnson Matthey C) Rolls-Royce D) BAE Systems
19 What did HSBC buy for £1 in March?
A) A Pret sandwich B) Barclays C) UK arm of SVB D) Brighton & Hove Albion FC
20 Name the UK pharma company sold to a Swedish private equity firm for £4.5bn?
A) GSK B) AstraZeneca C) Dechra Pharmaceuticals D) Oxford Nanopore
21 Who said chief executives of UK listed companies should be paid more?
A) Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca B) Jeremy Hunt, Chancellor of the Exchequer C) Julia Hoggett, London Stock Exchange D) Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England
22 How much in dividends did the Wilkinson family extract in the decade before Wilko’s collapse?
A) £7 million B) £17 million C) £70 million D) £77 million
23 Who replaced Andrew Griffith as City Minister?
A) Bim Afolami B) Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg C) Laura Trott D) John Glen
24 Marks & Spencer returned to the FTSE 100 after how many years away?
A) 2 B) 4 C) 8 D) 10
25 The Competition and Markets Authority eventually allowed which Big Tech takeover?
A) Microsoft and Activision
B) Activision and Alphabet
C) Meta and Microsoft
D) Alphabet and Sage
