MR Jacques de Larosiere has not spared himself in his rigorous efforts to make the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development into a lean and cost effective organisation.

He normally travels economy, pour encourager les autres, and recently he found sub tenants for an entire floor at the bank's headquarters in London, forcing his directors and their staff into smaller offices.

A far cry from his predecessor, Mr Jacques Attali, who lost his job for building a prestigious marble entrance hall to the premises and hiring aircraft to get home for the weekend.

Participants in the bank's annual think fest in Sofia, Bulgaria, last weekend were not spared either.

Apart from government officials and journalists, they were charged for the pleasure of attending $100 each if they came from the west, $50 for the easterners. And documents like country profiles and lists of guests had to be paid for too.

Many were miffed because strict Bulgarian security limited their scope for making contacts, which was the point of the exercise.

As the Government jet was with Dick Spring in Argentina, Ruairi Quinn, who has been elected as chairman of the bank for the coming year, had to make do with the Air Corps Beechcraft described by sources as the wind up plane", for his hop from Verona in Italy to Sofia. A sort of economy class.