While London bankers are either on the beach or taking it pretty easy, New York bankers are busy making dollars and lots of them. The dollar debt market is still operating at full capacity, and in a single day last week three European banks raised no less than $5.6bn.

HSBC sold a $1.25bn 10-year bond, ING a $750m five-year bond, while Royal Bank of Scotland brought $3.6bn in three fixed and floating-rate tranches. American demand for European bank product is robust and the basis swap affords a healthy pick-up back to euros.