Seats already filling for benchmarking sequelWe've got a bit of news for anyone who thought benchmarking had gone away - it hasn't.

Yes, just when you thought it was safe to go back into the fiscal waters, the body that brought you the €1 billion public sector pay bonanza is gearing up for a sequel, presumably bigger and bloodier than the first.

This week, the Public Service Benchmarking Body advertised for consultants to look at employment and pay data gathered by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and compare wages in the public and private sectors.

It sounds remarkably like the job that the benchmarking group, which has a €1.8 million a year budget, is supposed to do itself. However, it says doing these comparisons is complex work, for all sorts of reasons. For example, there are 100 different grades in the public sector (about one quarter the number of unions representing its workers).

Still, the board's make-up should fill you full of confidence. It's got two trade unionists, Bill Atlee, former head of Siptu, which has its fair share of public-sector members, and Tom McKevitt, formerly of the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU), an organisation that - believe it or not - is composed entirely of public servants.

For good measure, there's a former civil servant, John Malone, one-time secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, and a current public servant in the shape of UCD economics professor Brendan Walsh.

The private sector's representative is Will Slattery of State Street Bank. Dan O'Keeffe, senior counsel, chairs it, and the other member is Olive Braiden (who once ran for Fianna Fáil).

Bupa out of the running but still in the race  The decision of British health insurer Bupa to exit the Irish market took everyone by surprise.

Granted, the company has been saying from the time it first ventured to challenge the dominance of the VHI 10 years ago that it would take its ball home if risk equalisation was introduced. It's just that everyone always assumed the claim was a bit of bluster - something with which to strengthen its position with the Minister. After all, community rating - whose logical extension is risk equalisation - was in place well before Bupa entered the market.

The big winner, at least in the short term, is the VHI, as the State health insurer is likely to win back the lion's share of Bupa's customers.

Bupa's announcement, assuming the group does follow through on it, has left the various interested parties - including the Government - scrambling to indicate how community rating can co-exist with a competitive market.

Indeed, the timing of Bupa's decision appears to have caught even some of its own people on the hop. On its internet homepage, alongside the news that it has been "forced to close its business", is a notice promoting the Great Bupa Ireland Run . . . on April 17th next year.

Winners, aka sponsorsDublin's stockbrokers had their annual session of mutual backslapping this week as Finance magazine awards were announced.

Davy carried off 13 awards, including the best overall Irish equity research gong, while Goodbody managed to secure 11 awards. NCB's recovery was highlighted by John Sheehan, who was named analyst of the year four years after he last won the title. Not to be left out, Merrion took home a handful of accolades, including retaining the title for objective equity research.

In light of the success of the top four in holding off the domestic competition, Finance must be pleased it had chosen those same four brokers to sponsor this year's awards . . .

A bit rich about wealthIf the soaring property prices of the last few years have lulled you into thinking you are wealthy, it may be time to think again.

The decision by Morgan Stanley to sell its UK and Irish wealth management business Quilter this week has thrown the spotlight on the definition of wealthy.

Quilter's 18,000 clients, who have portfolios averaging £311,000 (€464,000), are merely members of the "mass affluent", according to the bank and, frankly, they are not worth bothering with anymore. Morgan Stanley apparently is now focusing on "high net-worth individuals" (that's those with non-property wealth of £3 million) and "ultra high net-worth individuals" (£20 million).