Credit Suisse is in the very unsual position in investment banking of being able to say that it hasn't changed its headcount, a fact not lost on the banking analysts under pressure at other banks who were listening to CS chief Brady Dougan' s briefing in Zurich.

Although the investment bank is turning over staff, overall levels are stable, with Mr Dougan noting that CS "came into this banking crisis with one of the leanest staffs around". Nonetheless, the bank was "very aggressively reallocating staff across the businesses".