"Typisch Deutsch", groans Peter Opitz, a Frankfurt-based partner at international law firm Freshfields. He sighs resignedly at Germans' tendency to do themselves down: offered the choice, German business people will trust foreign experts rather than those born, educated and trained in Germany.
Frankfurt may have matured as a financial marketplace, but local bankers have not shaken off their inferiority complex. "What was once an ugly duckling has grown up into a handsome swan, though not necessarily a proud swan," says Johann-Wilhelm Gaddum, vice-president of the Bundesbank.
As competition grows between Europe's financial marketplaces, Germany's moneymen are gripped by the agony of self-doubt. For every banker who celebrates the fact that the big banks have finally shut down their trading rooms in towns like Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, centralizing trading in Frankfurt, another rants that Germany should have conquered its parochialism years ago.
As Finanzplatz Frankfurt slowly begins to tackle its shortcomings, this soul-searching has been formalized with a schedule of regular meetings.
Two years ago the stock exchange started a lobby group to reform financial legislation and gild the image of Finanzplatz - a good deal of the members' time is spent reminding each other of the problems.