Top bank earnings and the war for clients

Fortune makes a good point about earnings: At times like this, when we're seeing a huge divergence, banks use solid results as a big weapon in their battle to win clients. If your earnings are no good, you're vulnerable. The magazine points to Bear Stearns's prime brokerage operations. CFO Samuel Molinaro admitted that questions about the firm's strength "had led some customers to reduce business with Bear, shifting to other banks they felt were doing better during the mortgage meltdown." So to the laggards, it was almost a relief when some questions arose about Goldman Sachs' blow-out 3Q earnings, mainly surrounding valuations of level 3 assets. Still, you have to think that Bear, Citigroup, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch will have to go into overdrive in terms of client relations right now.  

For more:
- here's the Fortune article

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