When HSBC reported its annual results last month, it appeared to confirm the maxim of its chief executive Stuart Gulliver that far from being “too big to fail”, the bank’s global banking and markets business is big enough to cope.

The division beat its peers with $17.1bn in revenues (down 10% compared with an average decline at its peers of 17%), while pre-tax profits of $7.1bn dropped 24% (compared with a collapse of 51% across the street).