Mike Mayo

Mike Mayo has been a bank analyst at major firms including Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, CLSA, and Wells Fargo. He is known for his willingness to challenge bank executives directly — including in confrontational earnings call exchanges — about capital allocation, excess compensation, and governance. His book "Exile on Wall Street" documented the pressure analysts face from banks whose business they cover, and his battles with major banks over his "sell" ratings. Mayo was named to Institutional Investor's "All America" analyst team multiple times. His framework for evaluating bank stocks — focusing on tangible book value, return on equity relative to cost of equity, and the quality of bank management's capital allocation decisions — has given institutional investors a disciplined valuation methodology for an asset class where accounting complexity and leverage make standard earnings multiples unreliable as standalone valuation tools.