For all of the excitement about the long-term promise of Asian markets and the inexorable swing eastwards from Wall Street and the City of London to Singapore and Shanghai, investment banks have long known where the world’s financial centre of gravity lay.

The senior managements of the big international investment banks have remained firmly based in New York or London. Occasionally, they would sweep through Asia on the financial markets' equivalent of a grand tour. But could that all be about to change?