New York Post – With just two large investment banks remaining – Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs – questions are growing over who might step into the suddenly emptier playing field. <\/p>\n
Many Wall Street watchers are pointing to the looming presence of large hedge funds and private-equity firms, which have been stealthily encroaching on many of Wall Street’s traditional lines of business for years now. <\/p>\n
"I think the new Wall Street is not going to be on Wall Street," said Ferenc Sanderson, a hedge fund researcher at Thomson Reuters. "The headquarters of Citadel is in Chicago," he said. <\/p>\n
Indeed, the $20 billion Citadel Investment Group is more often compared to Goldman these days. <\/p>\n
Last year, Citadel branched into providing administrative and technical support to other hedge funds, not unlike the investment banks. Citadel also has a unit that executes trades for retail brokerages, akin to market makers like Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. <\/p>\n
It’s a far cry from the small operation Ken Griffin had when he founded Citadel with a modest $1 million in trading money in 1990. <\/p>\n