Wall Street is fiendishly clever at finding exotic ways to make a buck by separating some poor investor from his or her money. But there is one place where these masters of the universe always seem to lose their marbles - the nearest strip club. It doesn't seem to matter how many highly paid human-resources professionals and compliance lawyers are employed, and how much sensitivity training is established - the average investment banker, analyst or broker just can't seem to say 'no' to a lap dance.
In the past two weeks, investment bank Morgan Stanley has fired four staff for visiting a strip club while attending a technology conference in Phoenix, Arizona; and six women from the New York and London offices of Germany's Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein filed a US$1.4 billion discrimination lawsuit in Manhattan. Among the allegations in the latter case was that a managing director often brought hookers into the office at lunchtime, and that a woman banker was pressured to leave an after-work celebration so that her colleagues could go to a strip club.
It all has many echoes of previous problems Wall Street has had with raging testosterone. In 2004, for example, Morgan Stanley agreed to pay out US$54 million to settle sexual discrimination charges it faced amid allegations of breast-shaped cakes, lewd comments and strippers being hired by male colleagues.
The funds side of the business isn't much better. One of the biggest fund companies in the world, Fidelity, is still reeling from allegations about a lavish party held in 2003 for one of its star traders by three Wall Street firms. That involved a yacht off Miami and sexy models.
Meanwhile, you take a look at The Trader magazine's lists of the top 100 traders and you are lucky to find more than a couple of women.
The Morgan Stanley firings have sent a chill through the regular Wall Street clientele of New York strip clubs, such as Scores. This comes just after the departure of the chief executive of the internet firm Savvis for building up a US$241,000 bill at the club - then refusing to pay it.
