One by one, institutions are shuffling forward to own up to exposure to Bernard Madoff’s astonishing Ponzi scheme. Santander, whose clients may be down €2bn, is eating humble tortilla, joined in the hall of shame by HSBC, BNP Paribas and Man Group.

A striking exception is Nicola Horlick, chief executive of Bramdean Asset Management, who has followed up an assessment of potential losses with a swipe at the “systemic failure” of the US authorities. An exercise in diversion, this resembles nothing so much as Gordon Brown’s tactic to depict the UK recession as an imported US problem.