Michael Klimes

1 week ago | thebanker.com | Michael Klimes

Nearly three-quarters of dealmakers feel positive about mergers and acquisitions for the next 12 months despite Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs, according to research.  A survey by law firm Taylor Wessing and Bayes Business School looked at the sentiment of dealmakers across regions and by sector from now until 2030.

2 weeks ago | thebanker.com | Michael Klimes

In boxing they say that a good, big fighter will always beat a good, little one as size overwhelms opponents. The same principle applies in investment banking where scale really does help you win. Boutique institutions, such as Moelis, Evercore, PJT Partners, Lazard and Houlihan Lokey, however, would argue otherwise. They aim to be nimble where a Goldman Sachs or Citigroup might be slow.

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Michael Klimes

Ask five economists and you will get five different answers, is how the joke goes. A version of this applies to how banks devise their private credit offering: there are many ways to do it. Figuring out the right one is critical for investment banks given how many of them want to either launch new private credit ventures or upgrade existing ones. It is such a hotbed of activity that there seems to be a new announcement every other month.

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Michael Klimes

In the run up to the global turmoil unleashed by the Trump administration’s tariffs last week, global equity capital market issuance hit the highest it has been in the first quarter of any year since 2021. On April 2 President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs that drove shares in major US banks downwards.

1 month ago | thebanker.com | Michael Klimes

The political and regulatory stars are aligning to reform an obscure but important regulation that limits how much US Treasuries major Wall Street lenders can buy. It is called the supplementary leverage ratio and stipulates that large banks maintain 5 per cent of their capital against all bank assets, regardless of risk. It is calculated by dividing a bank’s common equity by its total assets.