Post the crisis, the big difference between the U.S. and European investment banking sectors has been that Europe has had compensation caps. And this hasn't just been of theoretical importance; consistently, U.S. banks have paid more, and specifically paid bigger bonuses, than their European counterparts. Coincidental (or not) with this, the U.S. banks have pulled away and gained huge market share. Back in 2008 when Barclays was worrying about losing top talent, there were several European players who could hold their heads up high in the global top ten, and a few – Deutsche, the Swiss and Barclays itself were all up there – with genuine bulge bracket status. Nowadays, not so much. Although Barclays has paid out to some big hitters, the talent overall has drained away.