One by one, as they attended this weekend’s Washington summit, the leaders of big emerging economies made a single point again and again: no longer will the world’s financial rules be set just by a club of rich countries.

That the summit was of the group of 20 emerging and industrialised countries, not the G7 or G8, was itself an indication of the shift in power – as was the fact that the future meetings in the process will also occur in the G20 format.