A few months ago, when ways and means of naming and shaming bankers were under discussion, I ventured the opinion in this space that an effective way of conveying the public's displeasure would be to withold the knighthoods and other high awards that chairmen and chief executives have come to expect almost as a matter of course for their services to banking.
Big bonuses and pension pots are alright in their way but there is nothing to beat a Sir before your name and a Lady for your wife - not to mention the visit to the Palace to receive the accolade.
To judge by the absence of banking names in the New Year's Honours the idea of withholding such awards has caught on.
The single exception of a lesser award to a senior HSBC executive only serves to put into perspective this wider recognition of the industry's current low standing in public opinion.
And the point is driven home by the fact that the retiring Lord Mayor of the City of London, normally the routine recipient of a knighthood, has this time been given only a CBE.
For the rest, the mix is much as usual. However, eyebrows will have been raised by the Queen's Police Medal for assistant commissioner Cressida Dick who was in charge of the Metropolitan Police's operation that led to the incorrect identification as a terrorist and fatal shooting of the totally innocent Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell underground station four years ago.
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