All gone

The legend of the financial crash of 2007 and 2008 grows ever stronger.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman on Sunday, US time, secured the agreement of the US Federal Reserve for each of them to become bank holding companies.

Given that Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America two weekends ago, Lehman Brothers of course went bust the same weekend, and Bear Stearns folded into JP Morgan back in March, this means that the number of Wall Street investment banks of substance left standing is … none.

The housing bubble of the 2000s and the financial crash this bubble created have effectively wiped out an entire business model.

In merging with, or turning back into banks, the Wall Street investment banks are reversing the central, regulatory response to the financial panic that preceded the Great Depression.

While it appears that Goldman Sachs, at least, had been in talks with the Fed over this option for several months, the timing of the announcement of the conversion of both to bank status raises questions about what is so pressing right now that warrants this conversion in status for the pair of them.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley each own banking subsidiaries in the US. The switch to bank holding company status will extend banking supervision, deposit insurance, and limits on leverage to their entire activities.

Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, overnight confirmed that Mitsubishi UFJ agreed to invest up to US$9 billion for a stake of between 10 per cent and 20 per cent.

MUFJ recently bought out minorities in Union Bank of California.