This is the dilemma facing many institutional investors of Royal Bank of Scotland; Bradford & Bingley and HBOS in the aftermath of their recent crises.

On the one hand, many shareholders will be keen for a clean break after an intense capital raising exercise - the consequence of a risky growth strategy.

But shareholders also want to be steered through periods of such volatility by the same management which got them into the mess in the first place.

A look back to the insurance sector - which went through a similar round of wholesale fundraising during the early part of this decade - may provide investors with an answer.

Shareholders in Royal & Sun Alliance demanded the departure of Bob Mendelsohn, then chief executive, as a pre-requisite for securing backing for a deeply discounted £1bn rights issue. They did the same at Scor, the French insurer, which replaced its chairman and chief executive to appease investors and clear the way for a €400m ($614m) capital increase.

Jonathan Bloomer managed to hang on to his job as chief executive of the Prudential when it launched a £1bn rights issue in 2004.

It was once Mr Bloomer had stabilised the insurer that he was ousted. This equally left a bitter aftertaste in some investors'''' mouths who thought Sir David Clementi - the chairman - mistimed the leadership change. Research by Morgan Stanley suggests that stocks that underperformed by at least 50 per cent ahead of a rights issue always outperform on a subsequent two-year view.

That''''s a long time to wait for results. But given the complexity of the subprime crisis and the market''''s refusal to believe that all liabilities have been exposed, shareholders may want to hang on to those managers who know where the skeletons are buried.