Buying a broker

Should any of the large European banks seriously consider buying a Wall Street investment bank? Matthew Lynn at Bloomberg thinks so, arguing that Lehman, the Bear and Morgan Stanley are easily affordable by banks like Deutsche, Santander or HSBC. He has one delightfully acid little dig:

[...] it is very hard to understand what Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc is doing taking control of ABN Amro Holding NV of the Netherlands with its partners -- let's remember, ABN is a fairly dull bank, with no great growth prospects -- when it could be buying Morgan Stanley instead.

Abuse aside, though, the case is less clear. A firm like the Bear has a uniquely American culture that would be a very poor match with a retail bank like HSBC or Santander. Even a closer cultural fit - Deutsche with Lehman for instance - would still be a massive integration challenge. Perhaps Lynn's really out of the money option is actually the one that would work best: ICBC using its inflated stock to buy American. I wonder what kind of protectionism would be wheeled out if the Chinese really did bid?