Banking turmoil : Stay invested, this too shall pass

HISTORY doesn’t repeat, but rhymes.

In September 2008, I was a global bank credit analyst watching a succession of big-name dominoes fall. After Lehman Brothers’ default, Merrill Lynch ran overnight into the arms of the Bank of America. Over the next week, Morgan Stanley came very close to danger.

I distinctly remember attending a sombre institutional client meeting with a fund manager colleague the following Monday morning, at which the principal asked me for my view on their Morgan Stanley bonds. I replied that there was one and only one thing that gave me some comfort, namely, the Federal Reserve’s decision, just a few hours prior, to designate Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as bank holding companies.