In one sense not much will change. The firms we regarded as investment banks had already become large financial conglomerates. Morgan Stanley ceased to be a stand-alone investment bank in 1997 when it merged with the consumer finance company Dean Witter. Goldman broadened away from investment banking when it expanded its trading and principal investment activities after it went public in 1999 and by 2007 less than 15 per cent of its pre-tax profits came from investment banking. The truth is that pure investment banks ceased to exist long ago. The absorption of some famous old names into banks and the redefinition of some others will make little difference to client service or market dominance. In respect of their performance as investment banks it is a matter of semantics whether such financial conglomerates include or exclude banking alongside their many other businesses.
從某種意義上說，不會有太大改變。我們視為投資銀行的公司已經變成大型金融綜合集團。摩根士丹利1997年與消費者金融公司添惠(Dean Witter)合并后，就不再是一家獨立的投資銀行。高盛1999年上市后，通過拓展交易和本金投資活動，跨出了投資銀行業的范疇，到2007年，其稅前利潤僅有不足15%來自投行業務。事實上，純粹的投行早就不復存在。將一些知名的老品牌納入銀行之中，以及將一些其他品牌重新定義，幾乎不會影響客戶服務或市場份額。至于作為投資銀行的績效，這些金融集團是否將銀行業務與其它各項業務并列只是個一個符號問題。