na. For much of its history, the Lazard "houses" operated independently of one another. There were offices in London, New York and Paris that did not have many dealings with their counterparts. Increasingly, as commerce became more global, the different offices of Lazard began to work more closely together. The company was brought into a single organization in 2000, and began trading publicly in mid-2005. In preparation for its initial public offering, the company underwent some restructuring changes that focused its attention on core businesses, including investment banking. Today, Lazard has offices in 15 countries and is a well-known investment bank. Together, its operations in Europe and North America account for 99 percent of its revenue, and the company's mergers and acquisitions activities accounted for 73 percent of its revenues in 2004 ("Investor Relations" 1).
IS INVESTMENT BANKING GLOBAL OR LOCAL?
The last quarter of the twentieth century saw a significant change in the investment banking industry. Consumers·including governments and corporations·became more sophisticated, capital became more global, and the economic environment changed significant with the introduction of a single currency in much of Western Europe, currency crises in Asia and other financial shocks. As a result, investment banks were forced to modernize their operations as they also faced competition from traditional retail banks that were now entering the market as deregulation freed them from previous constraints (Hunt, 1995).
Increasingly, investment banks are finding their activities scrutinized not only by the governments where they are headquartered, but by governments where they conduct business, as well. Germany, for example, has cited the influence of foreign investment banks as being similar to "locusts," a charge that has also been leveled against foreign investors and investment banks in Malaysia and other nations, as well (...