Joshua Hamerman

Talk about a generation gap. The 133-year-old broker-dealer Jesup & Lamont, which helped raise money for John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co., is merging with Tri-Artisan Capital Partners, an eight-year-old merchant bank.

A U.S. market for covered bonds — touted by regulators last year as a potential alternative to securitization for financing mortgages — may be a step closer to reality.

One of the hallmarks of the financial crisis over the past two years has been the explosion in the recruitment and expansion efforts of boutiques and mid-sized firms, and the migration of talent from bulge brackets to smaller players. But now that a recovery, however tenuous, may be underway, some industry observers wonder whether that trend is about to be stopped in its tracks.