A 1950s stockbroker waking from a nap of Rip Van Winkle-like length in the library of the City of London Club would not notice the time slip. The deep-buttoned armchairs and paintings of long-dead financiers would be just the same.

Appearances deceive. The financial establishment is no longer analogous to a gentlemen’s club, or likely to convene within one. A close-knit elite has been dispersed by globalisation while the financial sector’s political influence has been weakened by the banking crisis.

According to the business historian David Kynaston, 1950s Bank of England governor Lord Cobbold was wont to boast: “I can gather all the chaps who count together in my room in half an hour.” These days, convening a snap summit would be impossible. “The people you have to influence are no longer round the corner,” says Stephen Hester, chief executive of RSA Insurance. “They are in New York, China or Argentina.” No single figure embodies the City in the way that Sir David Mayhew once did as boss of blue-blooded broker Cazenove.