Henry Hoare, the 77-year-old senior partner of one of the City’s oldest and most exclusive private banks, has more perspective than most on the crisis that nearly brought the global financial system to its knees last year.

“Roughly speaking, the banking world makes the same mistake every 15 or 20 years,” Mr Hoare says, settling back into an armchair in the plush upstairs salon of C Hoare & Co, the bank that has been in his family for 337 years. “It always has, and I suspect it always will. It looks a little different each time, but it’s the same.”