To get back their past glory, financial services firms are trying out various strategic options, presaging a prosperous decade.

The slump in the international financial markets during the late 1990s and the early 2000s had slowed down the pace of growth of the financial services industry. The last half of the 1990s as such had seen both ups and downs as the financial services industry rose to its peak and then slided down At the same time, the last decade witnessed a lot of change in the global financial services arena. The stock markets played a crucial role in all the happenings. The soaring stock markets helped in the amassing of huge amounts of wealth both for individual investors and for the investment advisory firms (which come under the gamut of the financial services industry). This fueled the creation of thousands of new start-ups, mainly based on the Information Technology (IT) platform resulting in the famous `Tech Boom'. This had in turn resulted in the dramatic increase of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) activities and Initial Public Offers (IPOs), giving a fillip to the venture capitalists, investment bankers and equity analysts.

Since the last half of the 1990s until 2000, it was a cake walk for the financial services industry and the firms involved. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to state that the industry per se never experienced such a tumultuous growth earlier. The profits as well as competition was at their best of times during this period. The intensity of euphoria was such that in their eagerness to grow, the financial services providers sidelined even the US congressional legislations like that of the Glass-Steagall Act. A good example for this can be that of the merger between the Travelers with the Citicorp by Sandy Weill. Unlikely mergers like the one between Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter surprised many. Investment and speculation were the order of the day until the sudden bust in 2000. Notorious as the `Bubble Bust', this had virtually wiped out all the fortunes that were created during the boom period. All the financial services activities, which were at their best performing levels during the boom time, came to a stunning halt. The stock markets collapsed. The financial services industry had to bear the grunt as the IPOs and M&As market went into some sort of hibernation. There was a chain reaction on all other industries concerned because of this slump in the financial services industry.

Glory, financial services, firms, strategic options, international financial markets, growth, financial services industry, ups, downs, financial services, industry, global financial services, stock markets, individual investors, Information Technology (IT) platform, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), Initial Public Offers (IPOs), Glass-Steagall Act, Bubble Bust, Investment and speculation.