New academic research claims bank compensation schemes should not be blamed for the credit crisis, particularly as Richard Fuld, Jimmy Cayne and Stan O’Neal were the chief executives with the three largest equity stakes, worth a combined $2.3bn (€1.6bn), before the onset of the crisis.

Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, Swiss Finance Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and René Stulz, Department of Finance, The Ohio State University, published a paper - Bank CEO Incentives and the Credit Crisis* - last month.