It has been taken as given: investment banks are bastions of the white male middle classes and must hire more women and ethnic minorities. But as diversity programmes proliferate, Caucasian men are crying foul.

It is difficult to deny that banks need to bring in more women and minority candidates, however. At Citigroup last year, 39% of UK graduate trainees were female, up from 24% in 2002. The discrepancy broadens with seniority: at Goldman Sachs, the proportion of female managing directors has crept up from 10% to 14% over four years.