Expert networks became popular a decade ago, when people could not find obscure information on their own (and equity research from Banks was considered hopelessly biased).

Some of the big Banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, have started to integrate environmental, social and governance issues in some of their equity research.

Robert Law, managing director, European Banks equity research at Nomura, said the problems in the eurozone were more of a concern than those relating to the US downgrade.