The age of the big, stand-alone investment bank appears to be over.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs give up their status as investment banks to protect them from the storm that has seen their rivals destroyed.
After the collapse of Bear Sterns, firesale of Merrill Lynch and liquidation of Lehman Brothers, they were the only two remaining top investment banks on Wall Street.
In exchange for much tighter regulation by the Federal Reserve, the banks have transformed themselves into bank holding companies with greater access to central bank reserves but without their previous leverage.
