The decision by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs - the last two major US investment banks still on their feet - to become bank holding companies signals the end of high-wire finance on Wall Street, AP reported. After a year of turmoil in the financial industry that climaxed last week with bankruptcies and government takeovers, the two companies agreed to submit themselves to far tighter regulations by applying for the new status. The Federal Reserve, the US central bank, late Sunday accepted the two companies' applications, pending a five-day antitrust waiting period. The end of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as investment banks is only part of the larger financial turmoil that threatens dire economic consequences if the US government does not act. The US government, seeking to halt the financial panic that has constricted the flow of private credit, has spearheaded an emergency 700 billion-dollar programme that would mop up bad mortgage debts that are at the root of the collapse of investment banking. Battle lines are being drawn in Washington over the rescue plan as majority Democrats in Congress seek guarantees for taxpayers, help for people trying to hold on to their homes and limits on pay for executives from firms benefiting from the bailout. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Sunday deflected such demands, saying Congress needed to be "clean and quick" in passing the programme. He said there were adequate measures in place to help struggling homeowners and that limits on executive salary as well as industry-wide regulations must wait. Congressional leaders spent the weekend closeted with government finance officials ironing out details, and is expected to act before week's end, when a recess begins prior to the November 4 presidential elections. The approval by the Federal Reserve (the Fed) of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley's bid to stop being investment banks ends a 75-year era that began with the Great Depression, when the US government insisted that commercial banks stop taking the devastating risks with their account holders' capital that triggered the economic collapse. A separate branch of less-regulated investment banking grew out of that move, with five firms - Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns - dominating the field in the past two decades. Last week, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch was swallowed by Bank of America. Bear Stearns was acquired earlier this year by JP Morgan Chase. "The decision marks the end of Wall Street as we have known it," William Isaac, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, was quoted by Bloomberg financial news agency as saying. "It's too bad." Under very lax regulations, investment banks boosted their profits to stunning levels in the past two decades by borrowing money and investing in ever more risky investment schemes.
