If there is one distinct winner to have emerged from the wreckage of the Lehman Brothers collapse and the financial turmoil that ensued, it is Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the UK bank.

While Nomura, the Japanese investment bank, snapped up Lehman’s European and Asian operations, BarCap acquired the failed US bank’s North American business just days after the bankruptcy for the bargain-basement price of $1.75bn.