President Obama’s plan to curtail banks may lead to something like a return to Glass-Steagall days, when there were commercial banks that focused on deposit-taking and lending and investment banks that concentrated on broking and proprietary trading – an activity that is unlikely to go away.

But for the asset management industry, splitting up financial conglomerates began two years ago, when the financial crisis had started to bite and banks began to sell their fund management subsidiaries. Most asset managers and their clients have welcomed this development.