Industry tries to look beyond Merrills' roasting

The impact of Merrill Lynch's roasting by New York attorney general Elliot Spitz is seeping quickly through the investment industry, both in the US and in London. All is calm on the surface, but underneath investment banks are paddling furiously to re-position themselves for what everyone understands is a new era. Given its usual resilience to challenge, Merrill's acceptance of the $100m fine and the package of reforms demanded is as public an admission as a non-admission of culpability gets these days. Forget for one moment the consequences for the Thundering Herd, now corralled and awai...