As with Posh and Becks, there's rarely smoke without fire. So it is with speculation that Cazenove has put itself up for sale again. The intriguing question to ask is not whether it is true but why one of the big US bulge bracket banks hasn't already swooped to pick up Queen Elizabeth's stockbroker as it struggles in these testing markets.

And why, at the £700m tag being mooted, isn't there a blind auction taking place for perhaps the most famous broking firm in the City of London? Its brand name is a marketer's dream and it has a client list of UK companies that bigger US rivals can only drool at.