The elevation of Barclays Capital’s Bob Diamond to become group chief executive at Barclays, and the departure of HSBC’s chairman Stephen Green to become a UK trade minister, raises an intriguing possibility that investment bankers are heading for a clean sweep of running the biggest banks in the UK and Europe.

Diamond adds to a growing list of investment bankers who have been given a bigger role despite the financial crisis - or perhaps because of their handling of it. He will work closely with Barclays group chairman Marcus Agius, himself a former investment banker at Lazard, and who, for good measure, has today been appointed chairman of the British Bankers' Association.