August is typically a light month in financial markets and many in the City use this time to take a well-needed break. But this year, activity dropped off to such an extent that those returning from abroad may wonder whether they've just wasted their holiday allocation.

Capital markets and M&A activity all but closed down in August as a lack of banking staff combined with sovereign debt concerns in the eurozone, political wranglings in the US over its debt ceiling and poor economic data coming from many parts of the globe.