Learning to Save… and Spend

This week’s stories reflect what we’ve been hearing over the past six months: while firms continue to hold down costs, they are beginning to spend.

The tales of three major firms bear this out. First, the savers. Let’s start with WestLB. The German bank has combined its US, UK and European market data teams into one, which provided a more easily managed group as well as a single view of activities across the three regions. The move also allowed the bank to negotiate contracts across offices—an