Six big banks of Wall Street score $1 trillion of profit in a decade

While much of the world's attention was focused on the riches minted by Silicon Valley, banks were gaining momentum

Malick Diop felt something shifting on Wall Street.

He’d joined Morgan Stanley in the grim days of 2009, when big banks were trying to pay back taxpayer bailouts and deflect public fury. But four years later, the ire was fading and ambition was the order of the day.

“It really felt like, for the first time, the job and the career weren’t defined by the context of the financial crisis,” Diop said. “We are past this now. And now it’s time for us to do new deals.” In the years that followed, his rise to managing director traced a new