New rules and regulations for brokerage research may seem endless but industry observers and academics do not believe they sufficiently tackle the conflict of interest issues. They believe the solution is a radical separation of investment banking from broking to restore investor confidence.

Dr Martin Weiss, chairman of Weiss Ratings, a US-based financial services ratings firm, says: "I think the conflict of interest problems were much deeper and more widespread than people thought. It was not just analysts who were involved but entire investment banking firms. After all, he or she is an employee of the organisation. What has happened, though, is that the analysts have taken the brunt of the blame."