Where Did the Buck Stop at Merrill?
By Graham Bowley and Jenny Anderson ON Oct. 24, Merrill Lynch announced its biggest write-down ever, an $8.4 billion charge that also represents the biggest known loss in Wall Street history. Six days later, its chief executive, E. Stanley O’Neal, retired from the company he had run since 2002. Mr. O’Neal’s departure, many analysts say, was a victory for accountability: ultimately, the corporate buck stops with the chief executive, and he bore the cost of Merrill’s ill-fated embrace of complex, risky debt instruments whose value collapsed in tandem with the plunging subprime mortgage market. But amid the shoot-the-C.E.O. fervor that has arisen in the wake of Merrill’s disclosure — and after a similar and earlier announcement from another troubled bank, Citigroup — analysts are quick to point out that no major corporation is a one-man operation. They ask who else had helped Mr. O’Neal mind the store at Merrill, and wonder to what extent accountability for effective oversight of financia
