Erik Rees, chairman of the British Institute of Graphologists, says that graphology is a science with a proven track record of revealing key aspects of a writer’s personality. In France and Switzerland, he points out, it is widely used in recruiting and is taught in universities as a branch of psychology. In Britain its use is less common. Some companies in the City of London have an irrational mistrust of it and view it in the same category as astrology and palm reading, Rees says.

Graphologists claim some of the top investments banks do use graphology for recruiting senior staff, although none will admit to it. UBS Warburg used to use it extensively but has now discontinued this practice, it says.

Frits Cohen, director of Graphologica, a firm specialising in forensic and interpretative graphology, said: ‘We have top European and UK investment banks as our clients. But while in European countries clients do not mind being named, in the UK they ask for total discretion.’

One of Rees’ clients is Hiscox Syndicates, a City-based Lloyd’s insurance underwriter. Robert Hiscox, one of the founders of the company, says he uses graphology when recruiting staff at senior and sometimes junior levels. He relies on it in conjunction with psychometric tests, especially in the final stages of recruitment when it comes to crunch-time decision making.

Hiscox says: ‘Handwriting analysis is an incredibly accurate judge of a person’s character and I have built this business using graphology. Once I have a description of a person’s character, I will then choose whether he or she will be good for my business or not.’

Graphology was developed in the mid-19th century in Central Europe and was linked to the birth of psychoanalysis. Practitioners say they can gain a clear insight into a person’s character by analysing their handwriting, deciding whether they are prone to fear, anger or nervousness, for example, and how ambitious they are.

Leopold Joseph, the London-based independent private banking group, also uses graphology in recruitment. The chief executive, Michael Quicke, says: ‘It is very expensive employing people and very unpleasant if it doesn’t work out. So anything that might help is useful.’

The company has used graphology in senior staff recruitment for about four years, though Quicke stresses it is used only in conjunction with other recruiting methods and never as a deciding factor. The bank has recruited some people in spite of their rather uncomplimentary graphology test results, he says.

Industry sources say that some financial institutions which use graphology keep quiet about it for fear of criticism. The sources say it is sometimes used at senior levels within investment banks, usually by heads of division in recruitment of senior managers or analysts. While it may not be part of an investment bank’s human resources policy, the HR departments either turn a blind eye or get actively involved in the recruitment process of those particular candidates, making sure they interview them as well and have a right of veto.

Diane Simpson, a founder member of the British Institute of Graphologists, is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers’ exclusive speaker panel. The organisation has run several seminars on graphology for members in the financial services sectors.

Simpson says that a number of financial institutions have requested her services when recruiting executives. She says: ‘In 30 years, I have never been asked whether a person should be given the job, but I have been asked to describe how a person would do the job.’ She agrees that graphology should be used with other recruitment tools and not on its own. ‘Graphology gives a different insight,’ she says.

But Simon Brittain, partner at Kiddy and Partners, the London-based business psychologists, dismisses graphology as an ‘interpretative art’.

He argues that while psychometric testing has been scientifically proven to be effective, graphology has not. Research has shown that no two graphologists looking at the same piece of handwriting come up with the same result. He says: ‘We politely discourage people from using graphology because it is not proven to be able to predict your performance. It’s proven that it doesn’t.’

Rees says that graphology must never be used on its own, but in conjunction with psychometric tests and interviews.

It is also important to use a bona fide practitioner, who must have passed a three-year examination for the Diploma of the British Institute of Graphologists, or have another equally recognised certificate, he says.

Each one of the 300 movements on an average A4 page has more than one interpretation which can also be contradictory, he says, so graphologists need to know what they are doing.

He adds: ‘When people have a bad experience with a doctor, they rate him as being a bad doctor, with no reference to medicine as a whole. But when people are not happy with a graphologist, they say that graphology does not work, rather than they went to a bad graphologist – so it is all about changing this attitude in the UK.’