The most recent chapter of Lee Oliver’s career took him back into the world of banking and FX trading.
In the second of a two-part video interview with John Lothian, Oliver talked about his transition from a busy career as a freelance writer for Euromoney to a job writing and editing for Cititbank’s wire service.
Oliver was part of a start-up newswire for the bank, serving as content provider and editor for a newswire that ran at the bottom of Citibank’s relaunched trading platform — content that had previously been limited to online chats and other tidbits delivered in an unstructured and unedited format.
“The bank was producing a lot of proprietary information and needed a way to better distribute it,” Oliver said.
That sounded more straightforward than it was. Oliver also had to keep a sharp eye out for errors and possible plagiarism. “But given the amount of content that went out, there were not that many, really,” he said.
He left the bank in 2017, with the idea he’d go back to freelancing. Instead, he spent more than four years developing and managing the InTouch FX market intelligence service.
Looking back at his career, Oliver said he tried to be true to himself and stick to his principles.
“When I was younger, I genuinely believed I would change things and near the end I [realized] I’m bashing my head against a brick wall. I am never going to change things. … I’m just too small a person to be able to do that,” he said.
“I’m quite grateful for the opportunity that was given to me as an 18-year-old, and where that journey took me, and the life I’ve had as a result of that.”
