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After a freeze brought about by the UK’s Brexit vote, the European capital markets are thawing. While only a tap, the German State of Hesse has reopened public sector bond markets. Perhaps it was no coincidence that Frankfurt, in Hesse, is eager to raise its profile as an alternative for financial firms wanting to leave London.

Last Friday's force 12 financial hurricane had been downgraded to a storm in a rather British tea cup by Thursday as primary capital markets dusted themselves off and reopened with deals from across the spectrum. But don't relax yet — the UK’s EU vote may prove the catalyst for a host of horrors over the summer.

What a week. I pride myself on my sound judgment and foresight but I would be lying if I said that I had called the UK EU referendum correctly.

Bank stocks are up 50% from their 2009 lows, but down 30% since a year ago and down 70% from their all-time highs in early 2007. Many equity investors from a decade ago lost their shirt in the banks sector. They can blame macroeconomic shifts for some of this price volatility. But a lot of it is because "the market" doesn't do a great job valuing bank stocks.

An impassioned Brexit-inspired request from the managing director of the GlobalCapital group

Private equity funds have spent the last two or three years clearing out their cupboards, selling business after business. They have plenty of new money, too — but have not been buying assets. Brexit could bring them out of hiding.

Even if the terms of the UK’s exit from the European Union are tied up soon, market volatility will remain high — with a second referendum on Scottish independence almost a certainty. And this time, a vote to leave the UK is highly likely.

Wimbledon (the tennis tournament, not the suburb), like the City of London, attracts the world’s top talent, very little of which is home-grown. But how stable will this effect be in a post-Brexit reality? And can we have some certainties about how it’s going to work, please?

There are those who believe a vote for the UK to leave the European Union represents a chance to peel back onerous regulations on business and finance. Those people are in for an unpleasant surprise.

Financial markets had something of a horror movie moment last week when the UK voted to leave the European Union. The reaction in Asia though has yo-yoed from panic to indifference in a matter of days, as markets quickly regained their composure. But this is a mistake — there is no going back to business as usual.

It’s been hard to concentrate on anything but Brexit for the last week. All the predictions of doom and gloom seemed overblown on Thursday night, but it’s been wall to wall chaos since Friday morning. Now the very future of financial markets in the UK is in question, with thousands of jobs, bank structures, and financial regulation all hanging in the balance.

Capital markets people thought Brexit would not happen because the UK electorate always chooses the sensible option in the end. But it hasn’t.