US banks dare to cross cultures

BankAmerica, Bankers Trust and NationsBank, each bought a specialist West Coast equity house last year. Integration proceeds apace with the predicted clash of cultures. Cross-selling of products is a controversial issue as are compensation systems. Even office environments are a total contrast. Says one investment banker: "Nothing has really changed here. That's the way people like it." It may be 10 years before we can judge these mergers' success or failure. By Michelle Celarier.

Euro-gigantism

Hungry ING looks for its next meal

A jumble of incentives

When investment bankers at San Francisco-based high-tech boutique Robertson Stephens began to receive regular e-mail messages about business developments at their new parent, BankAmerica, they feared the worst: “It was an indication that big brother had come,” says a Robertson Stephens source. It wasn’t that the e-mails were directives on anything substantial, he says: “The news was just irrelevant. It didn’t add any value.

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