Barclays Bank dominates the small business lending market in the UK, along with NatWest.Yesterday Barclays launched its lending adviser system, designed to help branch managers make loan decisions. On Tuesday Safeway owners Argyll unveiled a new series of ads, When Molly met Harry, introducing an equally cute three-year-old girl. Colin Smith, Argyll chief executive, was delighted to cavort with the kids for the launch of the campaign at the company's Camden, London, branch. The company restructuring 18 months ago means Safeway accounts for 93 per cent of operating profits - so Argyll will rename itself Safeway following this year's agm. Not all is sweetness and light. One of our Safeway spies tells us that, away from the cameras, Harry is "a bit of a prima donna, a right little Lord Fauntleroy". A natural actor, in fact.Congratulations to Salomon Brothers' newly appointed senior German economist in Frankfurt, Gernot Nerb."We are delighted to welcome Mr Nerb as a member of the team," said his new managing director, Kermit L Schoenholtz.

Robert Jeens, currently the group finance director at Kleinwort Benson, will join Woolwich next month.. Only people living on Mars could have failed to see the cute TV ads by Safeway starring Harry the four-year-old, whose innermost thoughts are spoken by actor Martin Clunes, he of Men Behaving Badly fame. Though I am pleased at the attempt to promulgate best practice in the marketing of mortgages, I should like to know what sanctions there will be against any members failing to observe the provisions."Meanwhile, Woolwich Building Society moved yesterday to quell doubts over its pounds 3bn flotation plans by announcing the appointment of a new finance director in place of Michael Tuke. Its aim is to ensure that borrowers will receive unbiased advice on the loans they are taking out.However, Mr Bridgeman told delegates at the Building Societies Association's annual conference in Birmingham yesterday that while he was generally in favour of self-regulation by mortgage lenders there were several issues that still needed to be ironed out."The CML code of conduct is exceptionally good news. In addition, competition law in both the UK and Brussels has developed in such a way as to make the undertakings redundant There is an overwhelming case for them to be removed.". John Bridgeman, director-general of the Office of Fair Trading, yesterday attacked a planned mortgage lending code of conduct for a series of "shortcomings" that risked turning its proposals into a dead letter. Mr Bridgeman claimed that the code's most serious failing was the absence of any sanctions against lenders that flout its provisions. He also attacked the code for not ensuring that information provided to potential borrowers was sufficiently clear and for forcing them to sign a declaration saying that they had chosen their own mortgage for themselves."I worry because the borrower may perhaps be unilaterally giving up his right to redress for bad advice," Mr Bridgeman said.The proposed code of conduct was published last year by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

Those showed a 17 per cent decline in P&O's ferry traffic compared with a year earlier.Commenting on his request, Lord Sterling said: "The tunnel has a major share of cross-Channel traffic This has completely transformed the market. P&O said it now was, having started last month to publish a quarterly review of its traffic figures. Both services have been hit hard by competition from the Channel tunnel, which has taken 40 per cent of cross-Channel traffic. In the letter, Lord Sterling said: "The Channel tunnel has had, and will continue to have, a profound and irreversible effect on the market". A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said Mr Lang would make a decision "in due course".P&O said two weeks ago that it would be seeking to have the restrictions lifted. The P&O chairman denied, however, that the talks were a prelude to an imminent tie-up between the company's cross-Channel operations and Sealink's.

It asked for the undertaking to be cancelled three years ago but had its request turned down.The Government said at the time it would have to wait until data on the Channel tunnel's effect on the ferry operators was available. They date back to 1974 when the company agreed not to discuss fares or co-operation with rival ferry operators. Lord Sterling yesterday stepped up his efforts to secure government approval for merger talks between P&O and Stena Sealink, writing to Trade and Industry Secretary Ian Lang to ask for a 15-year-old restriction on talks to be lifted. A minute's silence was held yesterday during Shell's annual meeting in memory of the author Ken Saro-Wiwa and nine other human rights activists executed by the Nigerian military regime last year, writes Patrick Tooher.