The implosion of two of the nation's leading investment banks has thrust commercial banks into the spotlight.
With their acquisition of investment banks and retail brokerages over the years, commercial banks have assumed a model more common in Europe, banking analysts and investment strategists said. That model - known as a universal bank - combines a retail bank, retail brokerage and investment bank under one roof.
"We are a generation of people brought up believing you went to Merrill Lynch for wealth management and you went to Bank of America for your checking and mortgages," said Matt Bienfang, senior research director at TowerGroup, an economics research firm. "People just don't think of Bank of America as being able to provide the same quality of investment advice, which simply isn't the case."
