One curious consequence of lay-offs in the City could be a rash of discrimination claims from women bankers. The cap on damages in an ordinary unfair dismissal case is £63,000. But there is no limit on the pay-out you can claim for gender discrimination. The incentive to pursue a case on these grounds is therefore much greater. And women candidates are most likely to bring cases because the City is dominated by men.

Male bosses currently plotting the “managed exit” of some of their staff will therefore have to behave scrupulously when it comes to gender equality. Even then, they have a chance of spending time in the dreary purgatory that is an employment tribunal. However, women complainants have a poor record of extracting big settlements from City banks. Big claims make a big splash in the media. Their frequent failure is less well reported.