While British sportsmen were busy winning medals at the Olympics, the sad truth is that UK banks were picking up the wooden spoon for finance. While most of the world was focused on a festival of sporting excellence, Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered have been apologising for their involvement in interest rate-rigging, money-laundering and sanctions-busting. Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland have also both been caught up in the Libor scandal and fined for violating US sanctions against Iran.

In the eyes of the world, British banks now look more like Ben Johnson, the disgraced 1988 Olympic 100-metres champion disqualified for cheating, than this year's hero, Usain Bolt. If the Olympics have reinforced the UK's reputation for honest competition and fair play, the City of London has a long way to go to reclaim those virtues for itself.