Likes it. They bought Lehman, which had investment banking but was really a bond house, so Dodd-Frank caused a lot of capital issues and restrictions. New management is doing a good job by sticking with investment banking and have a great retail franchise in the UK, and they exited businesses around the world that didn't work out. They're going all the right things, though Brexit creates uncertainty. Great credit card business. It will do well, but have to get past Brexit early next year.

He compared it to Deutsche Bank, which he also does not recommend. He thinks they rely on lines of business that will do worse in the future. They were a leading distributor and manufacturer of mortgage-backed securities. “We’re really talking here about Lehman Brothers.” The way the MBS works, conforming MBS doesn’t offer much margin. Subprime and Alt-A were so important because they attract a lot of margin, but those are now out of the mix. He likes the people who work at Barclays, but he would rather put his money in JP Morgan. All the non-American banks are subject to base erosion tax, which raises their costs. JP Morgan and other American banks are not. Brexit also puts the larger American banks into a good position to take share in the European market.

Largely speaking, European equities and banks look interesting, but he would probably avoid some of the UK banks. The chart shows this flat lining, a lot of uncertainty surrounding this name in terms of what will happen with BREXIT. If you own, you might want to hold it for a little bit longer, but he wouldn’t add at this point.

A lot of European banks are suffering between regulatory problems and the US. They never really repaired themselves post the financial crisis, unlike the US banks. He would tread carefully. On the whole, with 1 or 2 exceptions, he prefers US banks. They have gotten rid of all their regulatory issues a long time ago. (See Top Picks.)

Heavily investment banking related and mostly on the fixed income side, which is a tough environment for fixed income. If he were going to buy a bank in the UK, he would be looking to buy Lloyds (LYG-N), a much more retail oriented bank. Retail in the UK will do fine.

(A top Pick July 8/15. Down 40.54%.) Sold this a while ago. Had liked it because he felt they were going in a certain direction about reducing their investment bank and cutting back on certain areas. Then there was a big CEO change, there was just too much turmoil.