Five hundred years ago, when the City of London was better known for trading woollen cloth, Italy was the financial centre of Europe. Today, international investment banks could be forgiven for employing as few people there as possible.

The same could be said for France and, to a lesser extent, Germany. A study for Financial News by Mercer Human Resources Consulting, the employee benefits consultant, underlined the extent to which tax regimes make it expensive for international banks to employ staff in continental Europe.