Northern Rock collapsed in the summer of 2007, but it was not until Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street’s biggest stalwarts, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, that panic really swept through international financial markets.

Within weeks, Britain had been forced into multibillion-pound bailouts of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds. In the aftermath, UK politicians and regulators vowed that never again would they use taxpayers’ money to save lenders that were seen as “too big to fail”, prompting a wave of tougher rules about banks’ capital and structure.

Among the public, there was also a huge backlash against bankers, which worsened as allegations emerged about the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, Libor manipulation and the actions of executives who many considered