The average company chief executive would, according to one veteran investment banker, take meetings with more than 20 different bankers prior to the financial crisis. Now, he said, they have come to rely on an inner circle of five key people: a banker, a lawyer, a PR person, their PA and their bodyguard.

The comments were made with tongue in cheek but have some truth to them, according to bulge-bracket and independent advisory bankers, lawyers and in-house advisers, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to alienate their clients.