When the City catches pneumonia, smaller financial services centres in the UK generally only catch a cold. That pattern looks set to be repeated in the current slowdown. The result? Regional financial professionals have a better chance of keeping their jobs than City counterparts – some compensation, perhaps, for missing out on multinational mega-deals and fat bonuses in the past.

The credit crunch is nevertheless likely to cause both direct and indirect damage to regional financial services, which generate about £50bn in annual gross value added, according to National Statistics. The direct effect would be through financial losses and job cuts at institutions dependent on subprime borrowers or international wholesale credit.