Candid bankers are a rare breed, even an endangered species. The rules of natural selection seem to have pushed bankers with an urge to be open, honest and forceful in expressing their opinions to the edge of extinction. But recent sightings would suggest that possessors of the candid gene may have survived in greater numbers than was previously supposed.

One such specimen - a senior, sophisticated French engineering specialist - recently spoke out with refreshing candour over lunch. Everything that had happened was, bien sûr, a disaster, but he could not help but delight in a by-product of la crise - it had given him the opportunity to learn so much! What was more, his job had become much more exciting. While he had always enjoyed the complex structuring that is all but unintelligible to most people, what he was dealing with now was far more real: liquidity.