It’s not as if Carsten Kengeter and Eric Varvel don’t have enough to worry about. As the fourth chief executive of the investment bank at UBS in a little more than four years, Kengeter is struggling to rebuild the business. Varvel, his counterpart at Credit Suisse since July 2010, faces a tough challenge stepping into the big shoes left by Paul Calello, who died last year.

Both have had a torrid year, with each reporting a 71% fall in pre-tax profits in a miserable second quarter. Both are cutting more than a thousand staff.