I have always advised anyone who wished to be a banker, at all costs to be a private banker and so deal with a customer base you would not be ashamed of inviting round for dinner or to meet your mother-in-law.

Even better, when choosing an employer, pick from a close coterie of prestigious institutions, such as our own dear C Hoare & Co, bankers to top toffs over the centuries.

Nonetheless, I was a tad surprised to learn that a young wunderkind dealer, who is making his way as a gun-slinging type of high-risk trader of sundry assets, started off his career at the imperturbable House of Hoare on Fleet Street.