Exile on Wall Street

Exile on Wall Street is a gripping read for anyone with an interest in business and finance, U.S. capitalism, the future of banking, and the root causes of the financial meltdown.

Award winning, veteran sell side Wall Street analyst Mike Mayo writes about one of the biggest financial and political issues of our time – the role of finance and banks in the US. He has worked at six Wall Street firms, analyzing banks and protesting against bad practices for two decades.

In Exile on Wall Street, Mayo:

• Lays out practices that have diminished capitalism and the banking sector
• Shares his battle scars from calling truth to power at some of the largest banks in the world and how he survived challenging the status quo to be credited as one of the few who saw the crisis coming
• Blows the lid off the true inner workings of the big banks and shows the ways in which Wall Street is just as bad today as it was pre-crash.
• Analyzes the fallout stemming from the market crash, pointing out the numerous holes that still exist in the system, and offers practical solutions.

While it provides an education, this is no textbook. It is also an invaluable resource for finance practitioners and citizens alike.

Introduction Watering Down the Wine 1

Chapter 1 “God’s Work” at the Fed 9

Chapter 2 The Big Time—or Something Like It 25

Chapter 3 Exile and Redemption 45

Chapter 4 The Professional Gets Personal 67

Chapter 5 The Crisis 81

Chapter 6 The Vortex 97

Chapter 7 Citi, Part I: A Long, Sad Saga 111

Chapter 8 Citi, Part II: The Plot Sickens 131

Chapter 9 A Better Version of Capitalism 145

Chapter 10 The Meaning of Life 165

Acknowledgments 177

About the Author 179

Notes 181

Index 193

MIKE MAYO is one of the top-ranked banking and finance analysts of the past twenty years. Mayo was the only analyst to testify during Senate Banking Committee hearings in 2002 on conflicts of interest on Wall Street, and in 2010, he testified again, this time as the first analyst to speak on the causes of the crisis. He has worked at Wall Street firms including UBS, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, Prudential Securities, and Deutsche Bank. He currently serves as Managing Director at Credit Agricole Securities, which provides services in the United States for CLSA, a global boutique brokerage firm. In 2008, Fortune named him one of "Eight Who Saw the Crisis Coming."

From Mike Mayo, the star banking analyst once nicknamed the "CEO killer," comes Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst's Fight to Save the Big Banks from Themselves, the true story of a man who dared to speak out against the status quo on The Street.

The book centers around one truth: the financial crisis hasn't changed a thing. Chronicling Mayo's time working first for the Federal Reserve in Washington and then with many of the biggest banks in the world, the book is packed with outrageous adventures—from management escorting him out of the Lehman Brothers building to getting fired from Credit Suisse for putting a sell rating on the entire banking sector to being banned from speaking to the media by Deutsche Bank because of his "negative" views. Wall Street has been playing dirty for years, and Mayo analyzes the fallout stemming from the market crash, pointing out the numerous holes that still exist in the system.

Offering a remarkable look at the behind-the-scenes machinations of the biggest financial institutions, Exile on Wall Street is a gripping read for anyone with an interest in business and finance, U.S. capitalism, the future of banking, and the root causes of the financial meltdown. It is also an invaluable resource for bankers, finance practitioners, and other industry professionals. Mike Mayo is an old-style bank analyst—thorough, independent, honest—who never pulls his punches, whatever icons, public or private, may be wounded."
—Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve

"Exile on Wall Street offers Wall Street's rarest commodity: the truth about our nation's largest banks and how they almost toppled capitalism. If you want to know the sickening truth about the largest banks, read Mike Mayo's exposé."
—Harry Markopolos, author of No One Would Listen

"Mike Mayo is one of the best financial analysts on Wall Street. He brings clarity to a world full of uncertainty."
—Maria Bartiromo, leading financial commentator

“Mike has long advocated for the investor. If only directors of business corporations with the legal and moral obligation to their shareholder base would emulate his diligence on their behalf, then good corporate governance would be restored. Every public company director ought read his book!”
—Thomas Garrott, ex-CEO of National Commerce bank and an ex-director of SunTrust