Global banking:Davos always attracts a cluster of global bankers, but the list of those braving the Swiss weather this year includes a particularly large contingent of Wall Street financial titans.
Participants include not just Jamie Dimon, head of JP Morgan, Lloyd Blankfein, head of Goldman Sachs, and Richard Fuld, head of Lehman Brothers, but also a large contingent of private equity leaders. These include Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group and David Rubenstein of Carlyle Group.
As Lord Levene, chairman of the Lloyd's insurance syndicate, moved around Davos on Wednesday, he was struck by one particular theme causing a buzz in the closed-door meetings of financiers: growing transatlantic competition for dominance in the financial world.
"The New York-London [ competition issue] is a really hot topic," he observed. "Everyone is talking about it."
This highlights some stealthier shifts that are currently at work in the international banking world, some bankers suggest. One of these is the growing proportion of investment revenues that are now being generated outside the US - even at US banks.
Earlier this month, for example, Citigroup acknowledged that the European operations of the investment bank were creating more profits than its American investment banking activities for the first time.
Other banks are reporting similar trends - and forecasting that the trend will accelerate. This, in turn, is forcing senior figures in Wall Street to become ever more engaged with clients and trends in Asia and Europe, by engaging in meetings such as Davos.
"In the past, the heads of Wall Street institutions have often been quite domestic in their outlook," said a senior European official at a Wall Street bank. "But everyone realises now that needs to change."
The growing debate about financial market regulation is also prompting increasing attention from bankers - not least because some senior Wall Street figures, such as Thomas Russo, vice chairman of Lehman Brothers, are now engaged in US panels which are looking at US competitiveness.
Indeed, the Davos conference hosted a public lunch yesterday to discuss these regulatory trends.
However, another less public factor that is underpinning much of the Davos debate is a growing recognition among some senior financiers that sectors such as the private equity and hedge fund world need to reflect on the image they present to the outside world - and engage more thoroughly in the policy-making process.
As Nouriel Roubini, a US economist, pointed out on Wednesday, a key global trend of this decade "is that the financial markets are becoming more opaque, not more transparent".
But as this opacity grows - partly because of the rise of sectors such as private equity and over-the-counter trading - some senior bankers are starting to fear that this could ultimately trigger a backlash unless they engage in a more open debate with policy makers.
Participating in forums such as Davos is one way to achieve this. - (Financial Times service)
