Wall Street bankers feasted on mergers and acquisitions over the past five years, ringing up fees by the billions for a fairly straightforward task: combine two companies to make something bigger. Now the job is getting more complicated. Although deals and stock offerings are starting to come back, the pandemic and a volatile market made them tougher to execute. In the absence of continuous, big-ticket takeovers, investment bankers found themselves providing more informal advice for clients and would-be clients on everything from supply chain disruptions to how to handle a trade war, or the best way to position a company for the outcome of the U.S. election. All of this to stay on top of the call list when a company starts looking for help with its next deal. In short, bankers have to know more and do more-including the occasional odd job. "The renaissance banker is back in vogue," says Paul Taubman, chief executive officer of the investment bank PJT Partners Inc. "In a crisis, you need someone who can see the big picture."
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