If you believe the gossip, the overhaul of Citigroup’s investment bank in the past year has not gone well. The cuts have been deep and badly targeted, with valuable employees canned just because they were expensive or for no obvious reason at all. Morale has taken a serious hit.

There is one slight problem with this narrative: performance doesn’t seem to have suffered. On the contrary, Citi’s investment bank had a very strong fourth quarter, which helped the group turn in results that were much better than expected.