A Study About The Business Model Of U.S. Investment Banks In Post Financial-crisis Era

The U.S. investment banks'business model has experienced several different stages. Before the Great Depression, it was the early stage of mixed business model. After the"Glass - Steagall Act"had been passed, it had been changed into the modern stage of independent business model. But since the"Financial Services Modernization Act"has been passed in 1999, the U.S. investment banks have entered into a modern stage of mixed business model. The common factors which have induced the changes of U.S. investment banks'business model can be summarized as: the nature of capital goes after profit; the changing of macroeconomic environment; the changing of dominant economic theories and economic thoughts; the development and deepening of financial innovation; and the changing of regulation and law system.At the end of 2007, the sub-prime mortgage loan crisis started from America created a great panic in the whole Wall-Street. Soon after that, Bear Stearns was taken over by JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers declared to be bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America, and one week later the Federal Reserve announced their approval of the application that came from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, in which they applied to be transferred into bank holding companies. Since the five largest U.S. independent investment banks were no longer existed, and the mechanics of shadow banking system has been damaged, the sub-prime mortgage loan crisis has developed into the financial crisis. The independent investment banks were set up during the modern stage of independent business model. Compared with the five largest U.S. independent investment banks, the traditional independent investment banks suffered a much limited loss during this financial crisis.Under the help of governments'financial and monetary policies, the macro-economy of the whole word has stepped into the post-financial crisis era since the last half of 2009. Then based on the analysis of the characteristics of the five common factors that induced the changes of U.S. investment banks'business model, this paper provides several perspectives about the business model of U.S. investment banks in the post-financial crisis era.