"Starting as managing director with Christine Lagarde’s background is not an advantage at this point...There are arguments to say there should be some distance between the region concerned and the people who have to decide how the fund deals with it"
Stanley Fischer doesn’t hold back on his views about the person who got the job many believed he merited more
(see IMF top job: Fischer questions Lagarde’s credentials)
"If you don’t trust your lead banks, then don’t appoint them in the first place"
An ECM banker at a leading underwriter says issuers don’t need independent advisers in tough IPO markets
(see How do you fix the IPO market?)
"You might trust the banker who’s been covering you and the ECM guys who work on your deal, but they don’t call all the shots. I was once forced by the number two executive at my old firm to allocate a new issue heavily to its three biggest commission-paying investors, even though I knew they would flip it immediately. The stock tanked 40% and a company that had built up over years was acquired by a rival"
An independent adviser argues that they do
(see How do you fix the IPO market?)
"Liquidity – or lack of it – and more importantly a lack of pricing transparency, is the main source of problems for market-makers"
Mathieu Gaveau, head of interest rate options and exotics at BNP Paribas, on issues in the rates market – said just as the biggest FICC banks were releasing a hugely disappointing series of results
(see Total Derivatives’ interest-rate derivatives survey: What price liquidity?)