Presumably, although he denies it, Brady Dougan considered resigning as chief executive of Credit Suisse this week when it became the first global financial institution since Crédit Lyonnais in 2003 to plead guilty to criminal felony in the US. In any case, he stayed.

It was the wrong decision. While Mr Dougan was not personally in charge of its rogue private bankers, he is responsible for Credit Suisse itself. Instead, having professed his “deep regret”, he made the $2.6bn settlement sound more like a parking fine than the kind of catastrophe that brought down Arthur Andersen and Drexel Burnham Lambert.

If there were ever an occasion for an honourable resignation at the top to atone for an institutional failure, this was it. Instead, Credit Suisse shares rose 2 per cent as Mr Dougan calmly told analysts that a criminal conviction would have “no material impact”. It could hand over the cash and move on, with nothing more to worry about.