DO WE NEED TO LOOK AT THE FEES BANKS CHARGE ON RIGHTS ISSUES?
NEIL SHAH | EDISON INVESTMENT RESEARCH
“It’s part of a much wider political play on targeting and attacking banks, and this is just one more area. OFT investigations are not undertaken lightly, though, and if you actually look at underwriting fees there’s not much variability. I don’t see an enormously competitive market there, so there may be grounds for this.”
TIM STEER | ARTEMIS
“It’s long overdue. To be perfectly honest you don’t need to have the large banks underwriting issues – underwriting is a misnomer in their case, because they don’t actually do any underwriting. Fund managers do it all. The days when investment banks would carry the risk are long gone.”
DAVID BUIK | BGC PARTNERS
”The OFT’s probe into investment banks is very unwelcome. No doubt the SEC and Congress’ investigation into Goldman’s activities in CDOs triggered this investigation. I am a free enterprise man – ‘charge what the traffic will bear’. If a corporate client feels it is being ripped off, well – move on!”