Last week I went to a business park in London’s docklands to report on an employment tribunal claim between Citigroup, the US bank, and one of its former senior managing directors, Niels Kirk. Lawyers and senior executives of the bank piled into an anonymous little room on the second floor to hear Kirk’s claim that he was pushed out because of his age and that he was told “you’re old and set in your ways”.

Citi says that statement never happened and is vigorously defending the claim. Kirk said when he raised the idea of age discrimination, he was not taken seriously.