In the last two years, amidst the worst global slowdown since the World War II, the city of London has witnessed more than 17,000 senior financiers losing their jobs. This figure accounts for almost 10 per cent of the highest-ranking employees in Britain’s financial services industry.

As the report published in The Sunday Times mentioned, “Redundancies, insolvencies and early retirement have wiped out about 10 per cent of the highest-ranking employees in Britain’s financial-services industry.”

The report added, “The scale of the job losses equates approximately to the entire population of Weybridge, Surrey — one of the City’s favoured ’stockbroker belt’ commuter towns.”

These figures, however, only account for the individuals who have been authorised by the Financial Services Authority, the City regulator and excludes all those who’ve lost their jobs in administration and support functions inside the banking sector.