Can Bankers and Brokers Be Friends?

Like the farmer and the cowboy, bankers and wealth-managing brokers aren't best buddies by nature. Felix Salmon calls attention to the example of Merrill Lynch and its banking parent, BofA. Others in the financial press also took note of John Carney's interview with ex-Merrill-Lyncher Lyle LaMothe.

In days of old, when Merrill Lynch maintained its own line of proprietary mutual funds, some of its brokers chafed under the pressure to sell the generally undistinguished products. Recent pressure to sell BofA products apparently hasn't been welcome, either.

Cross selling has always been attractive in theory, difficult in practice. From the client point of view, buying another product or service from the same vendor makes sense only if that product or service is outstanding in its own right.

Then cross selling becomes easy. Prime example: the success of the formerly small company known as Apple.