Spending with swagger has returned to Wall Street as US bankers splash out on extravagant parties, expensive restaurants and summer rentals at the Hamptons once more, the New York Times reported earlier this week . But the attitude to spending among their counterparts in London appears altogether more restrained – and with an emphasis on quality rather than excess.

It seems that the prospect of severely slimmed down bonuses has brought bankers in the City of London a step closer to the austerity facing the rest of the UK. Services traditionally buoyed by the wealth of the City report that spending, while up, is a way off the lavish, pre-crisis levels that cemented bankers' 'fat cat' reputation.