Another event I missed while I was away was the departure of Ben Welsh from UniCredit. Welsh was hired back in September 2007 at a time when hopes were high that UniCredit, a conglomerate formed by the merger of around 20 different financial institutions, would be able to meld these together and capitalise on what it described as its size and distribution network. However, the world has now changed and talk is that the bank is retreating back to its roots in the Italian regions. What this means for all the constituent parts elsewhere remains unclear, but it has created a tough working environment for all those who bought into the dream.