Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Tougher regulation hits investment banking power houses

Tougher regulation hits investment banking power houses - FT.com: With new regulations, the costs of investment banking (relative price of funds and the necessary capital) is rising.

"But the German group’s co-chief executives are also gearing themselves up to take an axe to their vast investment bank, according to people familiar with the situation. This will be seen as a U-turn for the duo, who have said they want to be the last big European Investment Bank standing as rivals rein in their global ambitions."
There are two ways to look at this:  from the point of view of a competitive market, some supply has to drop out of the market to ensure that the price is sufficiently high to cover these new costs.  The other way to look at that is from an oligopolistic point of view. The weaker, more expensive firms leave.  They each point in the same direction: fewer, larger more monopolistic investment banks.

The UK experience here.

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