Harry makes a record trade as Princes visit broker to mark 9/11

Prince William and Prince Harry cracked jokes with each other as they made multi-billion pound deals for charity on a City trading floor today.

Harry secured a record £21 billion foreign exchange trade while teasing his elder brother about his non-stop “baby chat”.

The princes were at top brokerage firm BCG Partners in Canary Wharf to raise money in memory of people who died in the Twin Towers on September 11.

Harry remarked to traders about his brother: “He’s on the phone and it’s all baby chat.”

He then turned to William and said: “Stop flirting, get on with it!”

One broker, Neil Fordham, called William a “natural” on the telephone.

“He even made a bit of a joke,” the 45-year-old from Abridge in Essex said. “He said, ‘It’s all a wind-up, I’m Gary’.”

The annual event is held to commemorate the 658 employees of BGC’s former company, Cantor Fitzgerald, who were killed in the World Trade Center attacks.

Some of Britain’s leading actors, singers and sportspeople also hit the phones to make trades.

They included actors Idris Elba, Thandie Newton and Sean Bean, singer Rod Stewart, England rugby captain Chris Robshaw and Tottenham manager André Villas-Boas.

Elba had traded more than £750 million as he spoke to surprised clients across the world.

He said: “It’s been really good, chaotic. One guy asked me to speak to his wife.”

William and Harry headed straight from Canary Wharf to Essex where they joined their father at the funeral of one of his closest friends.

Prince Charles was said to be “hit very hard” by the death of conservationist and businessman Hugh van Cutsem earlier this month.

Mr Van Custem’s funeral was being held at Brentwood Roman Catholic Cathedral this morning.

The 72-year-old businessman - whose four sons are close to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince Harry, formed a strong bond with Charles after they met at Cambridge University in the 1960s. He died after a long illness.

He had been a trusted, discreet friend and mainstay of royal events for more than 50 years and was a confident during the Prince’s marriage break-up with Princess Diana.