When is an offer not really an offer?

Assuming you've managed to labour your way through the interviews, assessment centres and/or internships and secured a permanent place at an investment bank, what are the chances it will renege on that offer?

In the one corner are various posters on this site who claim that offers have been rescinded by investment banks with little or no explanation. It seems to have chimed with other students who have found themselves in a similar position.

It's not unusual, over the course of the year, for the "changing business needs" of a bank to prompt it to review its graduate intake. This was particularly prevalent 2008/09, when mandatory deferrals were commonplace after Lehman's collapse exacerbated the financial crisis.

However, it's debatable whether banks actually retract firm offers. None of the graduate recruiters we contacted would comment formally, but even off the record views were fiercely defensive.

"We have never cancelled an offer in my five years at the bank," says one. "The only time this happens is when a candidate has not reached the minimum academic requirements and the business has not approved the exception."

From various conversations with graduate recruiters, we've been told that your offer will be rescinded under the following scenarios:

· If your academics fall below the threshold, and the team you gained a place on decided not to make an exception for you.

· You lied on your application or misrepresented yourself.

· You're making unreasonable demands - eg, trying to force a late start date for no particularly plausible reason or expecting too much pay.

· You took a telephone or an e-mail offer without a soft contract detailing pay and position attached as a binding agreement.

"Numbers are going up, not down right now and even if business needs did change, banks are sophisticated enough to realise the damage rescinding offers causes down the line," says another investment banking graduate recruiter. "In 2009, with the entire financial system imploding, banks only talked about rescinding, but ended up deferring offers."

Has this happened to you? If so, what were the reasons given? Let us know below