These are desperate times in the investment banking industry when bankers are not only prepared to work for nothing, but in one recent case in Germany a banker even offered a back-hander to a company official to try to win a mandate.

This unsuccessful bribery attempt involved a top executive of one of Germany's leading companies, the big international coal and chemicals group RAG, with annual sales of about e15bn ($15bn) and about 87,500 employees. Dr Ignace van Meenen, the finance director, was shocked to find himself being offered money by one of the banks tendering for an important mandate. Unable to believe what he was hearing, he promptly threw the banker out of his office.