Mike Mayo

Mike Mayo is one of Wall Street's most independent-minded bank analysts. He has covered major US financial institutions for over two decades and is known for taking contrarian positions — including sell ratings on major banks — that sometimes put him at odds with employers who had investment banking relationships with those banks. He was fired or left multiple positions due to these conflicts. His 2012 book "Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst's Fight to Save the Big Banks from Themselves" documented his experiences and views on the conflicts of interest in sell-side research. He argues that major US banks have been poorly governed and have chronically underperformed their potential for shareholders. He has also been a critic of excessive CEO compensation in banking. His long-running campaign for greater transparency in bank financial disclosures — including his advocacy for more detailed segment-level reporting and clearer accounting for loan loss provisioning — has contributed to incremental improvements in how major banks communicate their financial results to investors.