One needs to be strong in them all, and the barriers to entry have been rising. We expanded organically, and in 1995 we made the strategic acquisition of Smith New Court. At the end of last year, we had 450 equity analysts, more than 800 equity traders, and some 550 institutional sales people. We also have 13,400 Financial Consultants up from 11,000 in 1992 and plan to increase their number to 20,000 over the next few years. In equities, leadership is essential for sustained profitability.
Leadership attracts the best talent while top expertise helps win mandates.
Increasingly, an enlarged share of fees go to lead providers. Many financial services firms are seeing the rising barriers to entry, the importance of leadership, and the added challenge of trying to enter a business in rapidly changing markets. And so, many potential competitors have retrenched or retreated from expanding into equities. In Private Client our International franchise is even further behind our U.S. business in market share than our non-U.S. equities franchise, but both are gaining rapidly. Meanwhile, our global strategy has evolved, from a focus on cross-border business in the late 1980s and early '90s, to a focus that is simultaneously global and local.