Personal touch lets boutique banks run with big dogs of Wall Street

New York

IN a pink marble skyscraper across from the Museum of Modern Art, 20 summer analysts at the investment bank Centerview Partners listened while Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary, opined on the state of the world.

The analysts had been selected from a few thousand applicants, and most would return after graduation to work long days, nights and weekends at Centerview, which advises big corporations on mergers and acquisitions. Blair Effron and Robert Pruzan, the firm's co-founders, flanked Mr Rubin at the head of the table.

The conversation meandered from US foreign policy to the Greek debt crisis. Then Mr Rubin asked the students if they were always so pre…