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| Left to right: Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs; Jerry del Missier, Barclays Capital; Paul Calello, Credit Suisse; Jes Staley, JPMorgan |
THE MOOD AT the annual UBS financial services conference in the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York in mid-May could easily have been gloomy. A hastily concocted financial services reform bill was moving to conclusion in Washington, complete with clauses that would strip high-margin operations from banks. Industry leader Goldman Sachs was still recovering from the shock of being accused by the SEC of fraud over former CDO sales practices. Other banks were being brought into investigations of credit instrument sales. Private-sector lawsuits against dealers were multiplying on the back of the regulatory probes, with some big clients considering legal action against their bankers. European sovereign debt woes threatened to crimp global demand as the euro slumped in value and credit spreads jumped.
But investment bank leaders pitching their individual institutions to the investors and analysts in attendance at the conference struggled to stifle an oddly triumphalist tone at the upturn in their fortunes, and the prospect of further good times to come.
