Seven years after the financial crisis, global capital market banks have largely achieved compliance with tough new capital standards. However, the economic damage to their businesses in doing so has divided the industry into survivors, committed to strategies that are likely to succeed in a permanently changed world, and laggards that have lost their way.

The banks have been forced to double the amount of capital held in reserves, cut leverage by half and adapt to a regime of stress tests, living wills, "systemic risk profiles", new "capital cushions" and liquidity reserves. All of these measures have pleased the banks' bondholders, who are happy to see the "fortress balance sheet" boasted of at JP Morgan by chief executive Jamie Dimon become an industry standard.