Bank of America Merrill Lynch has come a long way from the dark days of 2008, confounding its critics so that it is now a realistic, if distant, contender to become “JP Morgan II”. But the bank’s third-quarter results sounded an alarm bell.

It was only one quarter - and a brutal one at that - but, against stiff competition, the global banking and markets division run by Tom Montag was one of the worst performers on Wall Street.