When we ran the Awards for Excellence last year it was a far different picture, with many banks entertaining a ‘fill your boots’ philosophy. Gone are those days, as we have been through the worst of times in what has been an unprecedented past nine or 10 months. Banks have shut down operations – such as the closing of commodities with HSH Nordbank and KBC. Other banks have been effectively nationalised – such as RBS, as it took in the full impact of the sub-prime crisis and the ABN takeover. And elsewhere, bank consolidation has also contributed to a trimmed market. The banking sector will never be the same again. With these wholesale changes, banks, insurers, lawyers and other service providers have also had to face...