Financial Services

Over the past few years, Tapestry Networks has built a unique presence in financial services.  Recognizing the significant changes taking place in the global capital markets – changes that have been accelerated by the financial and economic crisis – we have sought to bring together leaders from premier financial institutions to share perspectives on their main challenges and opportunities.

Bank governance
In the wake of the global financial crisis, it is clear that some banks managed to anticipate danger and reduced their exposures to risky assets early. Others largely avoided these investments from the start, but many banks suffered the consequences of holding too many troubled assets “when the music stopped” – with insufficient capital and liquidity.  Because these banks clearly made strategic choices and investment decisions which later turned out to be regrettable, if not disastrous, critics assert that they suffered not only from a failure of judgment, but also from a failure of governance.  Accordingly, investors, politicians, and regulators have called for significant reform in bank governance and, for a number of financial institutions (FIs), demanded different board rosters.

Tapestry’s Bank Governance Leadership Network provides a unique forum for bank board members as they work in concert with stakeholders to revise and strengthen governance at the largest global banks and deal with unprecedented strategic and competitive issues.

Private equity
In finance, private equity refers to an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange.  Private capital is invested in a wide range of asset classes, including: leveraged buy-outs (LBOs), venture capital, growth capital, distressed and special situations, real estate, and infrastructure.  A record $686 billion of private equity was invested globally in 2007, up over a third on the previous year and more than twice the total invested in 2005.  Private equity funds under management totaled $2.5 trillion at the end of 2008. 

Private equity firms are both praised and pilloried.  They are praised for their unique and essential role in financing firms that would have difficulty raising public equity, and for providing an alternative asset class for investors seeking returns superior to those of public equities.  They are pilloried for the restructuring they often impose on portfolio companies and for the considerable wealth many firms and their general partners have amassed.

Since 2004, Tapestry’s Private Equity Leadership Networks provide deeper, sustainable connections among a select group of the most influential private equity industry leaders in the United States and Europe.