“When we lose to JPMorgan, it’s not because they have better sector coverage. It’s because they do more deals”
Doing more deals sounds like the kind of thing that might happen when you have better coverage
“I remember just before the crisis when I was running equities at a universal bank, we had just had our best quarter ever. I said to our CFO, ‘Isn’t this great!’ He said: ‘Yes, but if only you knew how much money we made out of ATM fees.’ It was a little... deflating”
One veteran remembers the kind of unwelcome lesson in perspective that money centre banks can give investment bankers
“The pandemic has affected everything in private banking. I have so many friends who have given up their apartments in New York and moved to Florida. Only 90-year-olds used to do that”
The topography of private banking is changing in the US
“It’s amazing. I meet these fintech founders, and they are so intelligent. The way their minds work, how they know what products will work, where technologies are heading. Then you talk to them about financial products and you realise their minds are a blank”
A Singapore-based private banker spies an opportunity
“The company’s financials may be shitty but if investors get to touch a cow or see a tractor being made then they feel a connection to it”
An ESG-focused investment banker is candid about the rationale for site visits