Through the debris of the subprime crisis it is easy to forget those trivial scandals that went before, such as Europe's largest ever corporate fraud, at Parmalat. The €13bn ($20bn) black hole unveiled there in 2003 shook the world.

Enrico Bondi, the government-appointed administrator who rescued the Italian dairy group, continues his long battle against the banks and auditors he alleges were in cahoots for years with Parmalat's former management, led by its disgraced founder, Calisto Tanzi. Many of the victims were individuals who lost their savings when Parmalat became "Europe's Enron".