Their stock prices have risen, their bonds have tightened, and
now they've recorded a couple of good sets of quarterly earnings.
One or two even managed record or near-record earnings for the
second quarter. So far it has been a good year for US investment
and universal banks. Are they finally putting three years of pain
behind them?
Bank executives won't commit themselves. They've been caught out
in the past predicting upturns and corporate restructuring, or
bragging about deal pipelines based more on wishful thinking and
wistful conversations than hard, fee-paying mandates.
It's been left to the Securities Industry Association to beat
the drums of optimism. Frank Fernandez, the SIA's chief economist
and director of research, issued a report at the end of July
entitled "Turning the corner", in which he said that "the
three-year decline in the securities industry appears to have come
to an end as top-line revenue growth resumed, and the sources...
