SOMETIMES THE NET IS ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK.

There is a perpetual danger that the worst fashion ideas will come back to haunt you decades after you’ve gratefully surrendered them to the style police – flared trousers being only the most obvious example. Now, it seems, just as we’ve got used to the idea of financial directors not being beancounters, they have to get used to the moniker all over again – and all thanks to the sodding Internet. A company called beenz.com has developed a “web currency” called, er … beenz, and the company has also managed to enlist a couple of hundred retailers to award their beenz to frequent spenders. Think of beenz as 21st century Greenshield stamps and you’re pretty close to the mark. Whether the idea has a shelf life longer than that of the things people buy to earn beenz is anybody’s guess – but for now, it looks as though consumer-sector FDs are going to have to be beenz-counters all over again. ?: