The implosion of US-based CIT finance group and continued pain for Bank of America Merrill Lynch is a salutary reminder of the way chief executives fell over themselves during the credit boom to bring grief to the western banking system.

CIT's chief executive Jeff Peek was passed over for the top job at Merrill Lynch in favour of Stan O'Neal in 2004. After joining CIT, Peek used the wholesale capital markets to fund expansion in sub-prime mortgage lending. And funnily enough, O'Neal did much the same.