“We’re not in it for the money,” the co-head of credit at a large European bank insisted when asked a few weeks back how many would quit the business in view of the poor bonuses likely this year and next. “It’s about the challenges of solving difficult and interesting problems for our bank and our clients.”

However disingenuous you may consider such a remark to be, it is to be hoped that there is a large kernel of truth in there because, to put it euphemistically, 2009 will be one of the most interesting years bankers have seen.