WITH SO many in the financial sector scurrying for cover, Agenda is pleased to pass on whispers that SG Hambros, the private client/wealth management arm of the French giant Societe Generale is to open an office in Edinburgh, within weeks or months. Rumoured to be in the frame for the top jobs are Michael Smith, the Connecticut-born banker who since 2003 has headed Dresdner Kleinwort's small but effective Scottish operation, and his colleague there Christopher Thomson, scion of the Ben Line shipping dynasty.

Smith, currently on gardening leave from Kleinwort, is remaining tight-lipped about the rumoured new operation, but Agenda understands that the pair's move is as much to do with the positive fact of Hambros's enlighted view of the opportunities for private client banking in Scotland - often underrated as a growth opportunity - as by the fact that his former employer has been acquired by Commerzbank. The historic Kleinwort banking name, which dates back to 1786, is about to join that of the Bank of Scotland (1695) on the sad scrap heap of financial history.

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The Smith Gallery's hosting of an exhibition of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, below, counts as one of the great artistic events in the history of Stirling, at least since Jamie the Saxt's renaissance court decamped from the castle in 1603. The 10,000 visitors who have already seen the show of 10 drawings from the Royal Collection, on loan from HRH The Prince of Wales to mark his 60th Birthday, have Stirling's business community to thank for this rare treat. As curator Dr Elspeth King explains, the show (which continues until November 2) wouldn't have happened at all if the Smith had not been able to upgrade its security systems, to the tune of around £20,000.

Local businesses that have got out their chequebooks include Capita, Diageo, local solicitors Bell & Craig, Arnold Clark, Elphinstone, FES, Gladedale, Ian White Associates, Scottish Wind, Scott Group Limited and the new Stirling Development Agency, all of whom provided funding that the sponsorship body Arts and Business was able to match. King says the event marks "a new era in business sponsorship for the Smith and Stirling - it's been a wonderful show of support".

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Here's one for your diaries, especially for connoisseurs of the richly inappropriate: a one-day conference for public and private sector organisations entitled Twelve Ways To Help You Manage Your Budget And Reduce Spend is being held on October 28 in Edinburgh, with Helen Bailey, director of public services at HM Treasury, as keynote speaker.

Who better, to lecture us about fiscal rectitude than a representative of a body that this year will show a spending deficit officially estimated at £40 billion, but more likely to be northwards of £60bn.

As a non-political civil servant, Bailey might want to give an objective view of how, since the current government came to power, the national debt has risen 25% to £581bn - and that figure is calculated by the most optimistic reckoning.

That figure does not include the amount that has been pledged through the smoke and mirrors of PFI, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies reckons adds up to £110bn. If that figure were added to the officially acknowledged government debt, the total would represent 45% of UK GDP.

So, we await with interest the Treasury's tips on how "to learn from existing best practice to ensure that your budget is extracting high value from every pound within it".