To Broker or Not to Broker?

• Position: Some big players are restructuring their online brokerage business

That is the question that banks are increasingly asking themselves.

Faced with inadequate growth in revenue and market share, some big players are restructuring their online brokerage business. Fleet Boston, for example, is transforming its Quick & Reilly subsidiary from a transaction-based model to one that charges fees for advisory services. Fleet is also shutting down its SureTrade deep-discount brokerage and moving those clients to Quick & Reilly.

Other factors in addition to weaknesses in the economy figure into such decisions. A recent article quotes Timothy Willi, banking analyst at A.G. Edwards in St. Louis, saying that corporate culture also plays a role.

"Most banks really can't stomach making a huge commitment in terms of capital, and when you don't make a full commitment, you're invariably going to fall behind," he says. "They have created a stepchild kind of product, and...