“The world has changed fundamentally. The unfortunate effect of 2009 was that it led most people to think that it hadn’t.” This is how David Benson, chief risk officer at Nomura, encapsulated how the investment banking industry has only just woken up to a new reality of tougher regulation and lower volumes that together pose a fundamental challenge to the established and highly profitable business model for investment banks.

In the past six months, the industry has reached an inflection point. A combination of forthcoming regulation, the deleveraging of the economy, investor uncertainty and a shift in business and monetary flows into emerging markets is challenging the viability and profitability of an industry whose shortcomings were left exposed by the financial crisis.