Citigroup Memogate: What Were You Thinking, Dude?
Friday, November 25, 2005 - 10:23 am
Why do people put this shit in writing? To: Michael A Carpenter (Salomon Smith Barney CEO) From: John Hoffman (Head of Globaal Research) Re: Revision of the Ratings System DATE: March 22, 2002 HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL [EXCERPT] The research directors feel strongly that implementation and enforcement of clearer and more accurate ratings standards is in conflict with certain paramount goals of the firm. Research analysts have been told repeatedly that the primary goal of the firm is to get our equity underwriting market share ranking up into the top three. This message is reinforced in the investment banking weekly meetings and planning offsites to which research management and analysts are invited...The equity research directors question the Investment Bank's ability to accept stricter rating standards at the expense of revenues. We discussed extensively whether we could do this with a "revenue neutral" impact on Investment Banking and the answer was clearly "no". An expensive memo, to be sure. You Have the Only Hard Copy [Fortune]
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