There was a distinct sense of déja vu last week when Anthony Ling, co-head of European equity research at Goldman Sachs expressed his determination to strengthen the independence of the equity research business after a hail of criticism from fund managers.

Four years ago, Financial News profiled his predecessor Robert Morris. He too seemed vexed about the suggestion that Goldman's research was driven by its corporate, not its institutional, clients. Arguing that his analysts were no more or less influenced by corporate deals than their competitors, he said Goldman was 'investing in the secondary client business to get the message across out to them'. Not investing enough, apparently.