A decade is a long time in investment banking. Ten years ago, the Iraq War had just got under way, a respiratory disease called Sars was sweeping across Asia, and markets around the world were bottoming out in the wake of the dotcom crash.

If that all sounds like ancient history, it might alarm you to hear this: European investment banking fees in the first quarter of 2013 were the lowest they've been since the first quarter of 2003. For all the recent talk of the recovery in investment banking on a global level, someone forgot to tell Europe.