Why is everyone concentrated on GS, MS and not UBS, DB, CS?

Why is everyone concentrated on just GS/MS?

I understand that they are stand-alone investment banks but what makes UBS, DB, and CS so much different?

What benefit do UBS, DB, and CS get from being European based?

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Best Response

The model that has become questioned is the whole 20 to 30 times leveraged trading book model without a commercial/retail bank to back you up. This is why Citi, UBS, CS, DB, Barclays, JPM, and BofA haven't collapse and to some degree have been able to capitalize on this crisis. All of these institutions have large exposures to "bad" assets, yet they have a buffer of capital that Lehman, Bear and Merrill lacked.

In other words, there is currently a crisis of confidence in the markets, whereby if you are completely dependent on rolling overnight paper to support a hugely leveraged trading book, you can easily collapse.

Don't focus on location, there are plenty of institutions who are well positioned to gain from the current market follies. At the end of the day, the real prize is having a firm that survives this mess.

--There are stupid questions, so think first.
 

I don't think the majority of people here realize that it is ILLEGAL to use deposits to finance trading activities. Adding a commercial bank will do very little for GS or MS, other than calm down IRRATIONAL investors

 

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