Among the few banking bosses who can be said to have strengthened their position during the financial turmoil of 2008 was Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase. He pulled the bank out of subprime mortgages in 2006 and bolstered its financial position so well that when rivals such as Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual failed, JPMorgan Chase was able to buy their still valuable assets at low prices.

"You have to prioritise," he tells Geoff Colvin in his new book, The Upside of the Downturn . "I am shocked at the number of people who are watching that train coming down the track and they're still worrying about their strategic plan for 2009. We cancelled all that stuff - all of it - meetings, travel, you name it, to focus on the fact that we're in the middle of a real crisis."