Their maxim for the past couple of years has been simple: the higher the capital ratio – specifically equity as a proportion of risk-weighted assets – the better.

Together with a further infusion of public capital, the effect of the scheme for Royal Bank of Scotland has been greatly to raise its ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets.

Investors seem to pay closer attention to more cautious capital measures such as the leverage ratio, which does not allow for any risk-weighted adjustment to assets.