It has been an eventful year for everyone in the financial industry, but a particularly turbulent one for Philip Lynch, regional head of Nomura, the Japanese securities group.

Just over a year ago Mr Lynch was co-head of European equities at Lehman Brothers, and was sent to Dubai to lead and reinforce the bank’s Middle East operations, at the time one of the many big-hitting investment bankers moving to the region – enticed by the gush of petrodollars.