The return of relationship banking

Here's another silver lining in the great investment banking implosion of 2008: Dealmaking may well return to some of its gentler traditions, notably the return of the "relationship banker." According to Fortune, "the relationship banker is a more patrician and less pushy version of the league table-obsessed, cheap money-pushing fee-factory sort who ascended in the early 2000s."

Indeed, a lot of client companies may be smiling just a bit as they watch the decline of all those financial sponsors, who in their eyes wreaked havoc in the merger market. The hope by some is that when all is said and done strategic deals may be a bit easier to get done. They'll likely be facilitated by bankers who understand their service needs. The boutiques are certainly onto this. 

For more:
- here's the Fortune article