Viktor Popovic gestures to the empty walls of Euram Bank’s office in the rafters of the Esterházy family palace in Vienna: “Having expensive art on the walls is like a private bank saying to clients: look at the returns you could have had,” he says with a smile.

Popovic is not a typical chief executive of a private bank having, until six years ago, spent his entire 20-year career at management consultancy McKinsey.