If Banks Were Musicians, Goldman Sachs Would Be The Rolling Stones

2006-05-11 19:11 (New York)

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Investment banks have personalities that are reflected in how they go about their business and how their peers view them. Bands express their character traits through the music they make and the company they keep. What happens when you match banks with musicians?

1) Goldman Sachs = The Rolling Stones

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. occupies an odd position in the investment-banking pantheon. The world's No. 1 securities firm by market value is unloved by its peers and universally regarded as arrogant. Its prodigious appetite for hard work and its unrivaled profit-generating abilities arouse jealousy and admiration in equal measure.

The Rolling Stones would embrace Goldman's aim of being "long-term greedy." No one ever accused Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of paying anything less than full attention to the bottom line.

2) Citigroup = Ozzy Osbourne
3) Deutsche Bank = Fleetwood Mac
4) JPMorgan = Radiohead
5) Barclays Capital = Oasis
6) Morgan Stanley = Coldplay
7) Merrill Lynch = Madonna
8) HSBC = any boyband
9) UBS = Phil Collins
10) Commerzbank = David Hasselhoff