Investment Banking History

The chapters confront theoretical issues, national stories, comparative case studies from the past to the present and issues, about: The strategies of corporate and investment banking divisions within specialised investment banks or universal banks; the management of middle-term risks fostered by investment banking; investment bankers and markets.

Hubert Bonin is professor in modern economic history at Sciences Po Bordeaux and a member of the GRETHA research centre at Bordeaux University. He is a specialist in the history of services companies, and moreover in French banking history (regional banks, Paris deposit, corporate and investment banks, with several published monography books and a few handbooks). He is currently preparing a large history of French Société générale. Carlo Brambilla is lecturer in Economic History in the Department of Economics at the University of Insubria. He got his PhD in Economic History from the Department of Economics, University of Pisa, in 2003. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Bologna and a research fellow at the Economic History Unit, Bocconi University. His main research interests are in financial and banking history. His research focusses especially on issues such as patterns of banking systems.

Contents: Hubert Bonin/Carlo Brambilla: Varieties in Investment Banking Evolutions and Functions – Janette Rutterford: Everard Hambro, Between Investment Banker and Investor – Peter Hertner: Investors, Investment Banks, and Governments between Cooperation and Competition. A Short History of the Salonica-Constantinople Railway (1892-1914) – Juan Flores: Moral Hazard and Investment Banking. Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence from the Baring Crisis (1880-1890) – Piet Geljon/Ton de Graaf: Investment Banking in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The Dutch Way – Hubert Bonin: The Resurgence of French Investment Banks after WWII (1948-1960). Competitive Edge and Groundbreaking Innovation – Carlo Brambilla: Fading Investment Banking? Italian Banks before the Second World War – Giadomenico Piluso: Maturity Mismatch and Allocative Efficiency. Long-term Financing and Investment Banking in Italy, 1936-1975 – Luis Javier Coronas-Vida: The Spanish Investment Banks. From Financial Intermediaries to Company Shareholders – Sofya Salomatina: Investment Banking in Russia, 1890-1917. From Pioneering Finance to Universal Banking – Gergana Taneva: French Investment Banking and Bulgaria from the 1880s until 1930s. Portfolio of Skills and Strategies – Christopher Kobrak: Reconfiguring Multinational Banking. Deutsche Bank’s Acquisition of Bankers Trust as Seen after a Turbulent Decade – Hubert Bonin/Carlo Brambilla: Overall Survey of Authors’ Contributions to the History of Investment Banking – Hubert Bonin: From History to Present Times. Investment Banking at Stake? – Hubert Bonin: Final Considerations: Are Investment Bankers the Issue?