Over the past few weeks Financial News has been running a series of articles examining the differing fortunes of US and European banks. There is much to discuss: how banks on either sides of the Atlantic have weathered the financial crisis, the health of capital markets in the US and Europe, and the effects on the industry of varying policy responses to the credit crunch.

But really the most striking thing about the series is that we are, even now in 2013, still talking about US and European banks at all. Globalisation was supposed to have rendered such geographical distinctions moot long ago.