It is common to run into people in the finance and investing industries in London and there's no shortage of stories on the changes and implications of the financial crisis. Here's what I've heard:
- Morgan Stanley has lost a large chunk of their prime brokerage business
- Who's winning? It's all about sentiment and confidence, and so there's a flight to quality to the large, integrated banks like Deutsche Bank, which are perceived as safe
- A major institution has already started cost cutting measures such as reverting to black & white printing as a default option for its employees and changing the threshold time after which the Company will pay for a taxi to take the employee home from 9 pm to 10 pm
- Credit and liquidity have dried up, which means not much activity or deal flow. One hedge fund guy said he'd worked about 2 hours in an 8 hour day
- One friend at a private equity group said things are very busy because they deal in distressed assets and so they're expecting lots of deal flow in the next couple of years
- And, of course, everyone expects bonuses to be very low this season
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