“That [competitor] was strong in energy, infrastructure and real estate – but the fee pool has moved away from that”
The skill of damning with faint praise has lost none of its relevance
“Investors tell me it’s hard to buy European banks. If you are a generalist investor, US regional banks were the stable part of your portfolio. And it takes a while to get your head around European banks trading tighter than them”
A FIG banker is exasperated at how long the buy side takes to adapt
“It’s not hard to win the mandate, but you might get a call from the CEO asking about the performance of the bond. The bank will continue, of course, but will you?”
Doing your employer’s own deals brings a different kind of pressure
“Consider the base effects – 1% for a bank our size is nominally much larger than 10% for that bank – big numbers are easier to generate when you’re working off a smaller sized business to begin with. It’s just math"
Fair point, but not as persuasive when the small percentage is actually negative and the larger one is positive