Independents day

Since the high-profile investigation into Wall Street’s provision of equity analysis, the viability of independent research has been a topic of increasingly animated debate. Philip Moore looks at the economic realities of asking investors to pay for their credit research

Long before September 11, Kevin Adams wasn’t buying any new issues from airline companies regardless of how eloquent their lead banks were. To the senior portfolio manager of UK fixed income at Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM), it was blindingly obvious that this was no macroeconomic environment in which to be adding exposure to the airline sector. Nevertheless, there was no lack of investment bankers – and investment bank-funded research analysts – trying to persuade Adams that