Spitzer the blitzer doesn't nix Merrill Q2

NEWS Investment bank Merrill Lynch has reported robust second quarter figures, despite having to shell out $100m in settlement costs after accusations led by New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer. The bank and broker made $634m in the quarter and attracted $4bn worth of new business. Spitzer was this year named a silicon.com Agenda Setter (http://www.silicon.com/as2002 ) because of his work in investigating the relationship in investment banks between departments offering research notes and buy recommendations and departments taking the same companies analysed - often dot-coms - to IPO.