Some 18 years ago an upstart newspaper named London Financial News appeared in the newsagents of the City of London with a front-page manifesto pledging it would cover “the battles, the upsets, the triumphs, the blunders and the displays of virtuosity” in finance.

This is the 900th edition of that newspaper. It seems an appropriate time to renew many of the pledges made in that first edition. The City of 1996 was very different from today. Double-barrelled names abounded and a smattering of those photographed wore pinstriped suits. The Americans were coming but the big influx of talent from Paris, Rome and Frankfurt was yet to arrive.