When the World Economic Forum staged its flagship debate about the future of the financial services industry this week in Davos it sparked a scrum.

But the Davos elite were not scrambling to listen to the debates that have dominated the WEF agenda in recent years, namely the financial crisis and regulatory reform; these are largely absent from the agenda this year. Instead the hot issue is how financial technology could revolutionise the world of money; topics such as blockchain have eclipsed discussions on Basel III.

But critics argue the shift is a little premature. After all, the day-to-day life of most senior bankers is still dominated by regulatory reform issues and parts of the eurozone banking world are still grappling with legacy problems such as Italian bankers who have earnestly been playing down concerns about bad loans.