What a difference a crisis makes. The coronavirus economic downturn was not triggered by an unhinged financial system, as the 2008 great recession was. And the reason central banks and governments rushed to help banks keep lending to businesses and consumers was not to rescue the financial industry with taxpayers’ money, as happened more than 10 years ago. It was to limit the string of bankruptcies that the unprecedented current recession will bring upon economies worldwide.

However, that should only provide meagre consolation for the European financial sector, which is facing in the next few months the unenviable prospect of being hit by a second major shock called Brexit.