Tony Blair sets up Mayfair 'bank' to act as a deal maker in investments for the super-richhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1305142/Tony-Blair-sets-Mayfair-bank-act-dealmaker-investments-super-rich.htmlBy Mail On Sunday Reporter
Last updated at 12:21 PM on 22nd August 2010
- Former PM's company can act as an investment bank
- Blair's memoirs hail his 'visionary friend' George Bush
A company set up by Tony Blair can now act as an investment bank after registering with the Financial Services Authority.
His Mayfair-based company Firerush could provide the former Prime Minister with further opportunities to boost his fortune, estimated to be in excess of £20million.
Firerush is understood to be one of a number of firms Mr Blair set up to manage the finances of his consultancy firm, Tony Blair Associates (TBA).
But this development raises the possibility of Mr Blair acting as a deal-maker in investments for the super-rich.
Some of Mr Blair's staff have also registered with the FSA and are able to offer services to clients.
They include Catherine Rimmer, who worked in the research unit at Downing Street, and Jo Gibbins, a former aide.
A spokesman denied that the company would act as an investment bank.
He said: 'FSA registration was appropriate given the potential there was for TBA to do work that might fall under the scope of the FSA.'
Firerush was registered with the FSA in January and was originally thought to have been set up to manage Mr Blair's own private portfolio.
But the company will be able to offer financial services and will trade as TBA, according to documents seen by The Sunday Times.
These papers state that TBA can 'arrange deals in investments' for clients, according to the newspaper.
These include shares, unit trusts and government securities, while the company can also provide services to professional customers, including institutional investors and wealthy individuals with a detailed knowledge of investment risks.
Mr Blair's move into finance helps to explain how he can afford to donate the £4.6million advance and any profits from his forthcoming memoirs to the Royal British Legion.
The money from the £25 book, A Journey, will go towards a sports centre for wounded soldiers, sailors and airmen to ‘honour their sacrifice’, the former PM's office announced this week.
But the autobiography, which is published on 1 September, has been described as one long 'love letter' to former U.S. President George W Bush.
'It is the biggest and most unapologetic defence of Bush and his ideas ever written,' a Blair aide told New of the World. 'It is basically an extended love letter.'
The source added: 'Tony says he was wowed by Bush's strength, courage and conviction and saw him as a highly intelligent and visionary friend.
'He says the Americans were the only ones with an effective vision on how to deal with Al Qaeda and Iraq.'
In the book Mr Blair is thought to reaffirm his belief that it was right to go to war in Iraq in 2003 without a second UN resolution.
