Aesop couldn’t have written it better. The shares of traditional, slow-paced “tortoise” retail banks are outperforming fast-paced investment banking “hares”, which seem to be taking a nap while investors demand cost cuts and new revenue streams.

According to Financial News research, the shares of retail banks including Banco Santander, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas and Bank of America Corp, have risen, on average, by 16.6% so far this year, compared with the average gain of 13.4% achieved by a group of investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan.