The combined company will have a $2 billion market capitalization, $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion in combined revenue and more than $1 billion in equity capital, he said.
Asked about the possibility that a fiduciary standard would be applied to brokers, Kruszewski said, "If you take the worst from the Senate bill and the House bill and put them together, we won't have an investment-banking sector." The Volcker Rule, as applied, or a fiduciary standard applied in a capital-markets system, don't make sense, he said. "The risk could be that you see a separation of banks and brokerages again if these rules come about as written."
He noted, however, that the fiduciary standard has now come down to a study, and if that's done by regulators, "I think we'll be fine." People should focus on the Volcker Rule, he said, which seems to be the administration's top priority in financial-services reform.
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