A brief look at the contrasting fortunes of retired bankers at the UK's RBS and the Dutch bank ING can tell us a lot - about the financial crisis, about who bears the cost of bailouts, and why the UK's final-salary pensions are increasingly a thing of the past.

On September 1, ING told its pensioners that for the third year running they can expect no "index-linking" in their pensions, meaning the retirement payments they get will not keep pace with inflation. It amounts to a real-terms cut in their benefits.