Another investment banker who was made to look bad by a thorough greching

To be greched is to be caught up in an email exchange that doesn't look too hot. You might think the Commonwealth Bank's former general counsel would know better - but you might have thought the same about Turnbull once, too.

O'Sullivan rejoices in the title of Credit Suisse's Australian investment banking division chairman. Yes, an investment banker, a member of that internationalcabal considered suspect for unbridled greed, disastrous "financial engineering" and unrepentant hubris as masters of the universe.

Probably most people who work for investment banks are good and ethical souls, and much of their work results in ethically good outcomes. But having collectively profiteered in bringing the world to the edge of financial Armageddon and now profiteering from the retreat from that edge, you would think they would want to be on their best behaviour. Or at least look a little harder at the risk/reward ratio of any particular fee gouge.

Instead, we get the dismaying story of Godwin Grech's relationship with Credit Suisse's O'Sullivan, chairman of and generous donor to Turnbull's political fund-raising body the Wentworth Forum, and husband of the right-wing newspaper columnist Janet Albrechtsen.

As the Herald said yesterday, referring to emails tabled as part of a parliamentary inquiry: "In his emails with Mr O'Sullivan, Mr Grech suggests ways for the investment banker to hit the Government with higher fees for his work on the OzCar scheme. 'Once Rudd and his hacks sign off on Ford Credit - you and I can change the contract to reflect your preferred fee arrangement and push that through quickly next week. I will not be running it past Henry and co,' Mr Grech wrote to Mr O'Sullivan at 10.02am on March 19. At 10.24am Mr O'Sullivan sent an email to Mr Grech. 'Thanks Godwin. Sounds sensible. I will be here Monday and Tuesday but then away in HK so I will give you a call Monday to see where we got to. many thanks. jos.'

"Mr Grech also offers [repeated] praise and suggests column topics

for Albrechtsen through her husband. 'VG piece today by JA on Obama. He is the Kevin Rudd of US politics - a pure fake. Let's see the 'Black Jesus' deal with the feral

North Koreans and a hyped up Israel and Iran."'

Charming stuff. Sounds like there could be grounds for a further inquiry, this time into Credit Suisse's performance, fees and suitability for further work with any government.

It's a truism that you wouldn't want to stand between an investment banker and a bag of money, but there should be the odd limit. The fabulous fees they charge, the ruthless tactics some wield in the markets and a certain lack of rigour many corporations and governments display in dealing with them all add up to the sector's peculiar sense of entitlement just when many have much about which to be humble. When it comes to paying the bankers their multi-million dollar fees, governments and corporates alike are about as tough as the average board remuneration committee come CEO bonus time. Australia has been spared the worst of the US obscenities of taxpayer-rescued bankers continuing to reward themselves with huge bonuses, but it seems more a matter of scale, luck and opportunity than discipline and wisdom.

And we must be a forgiving lot. It passed without comment in August when Bill Moss and Glenn Willis got together to hang out their Moss Capital shingle as an advisory and investment firm. That's Bill Moss, former Macquarie Bank and believer in the Firepower scam, and Glenn Willis, fresh from Lehman Brothers, nee Grange Securities, famous for loading up various local councils and charities with collateralised debt obligations that turned out to be toxic.

Wonder if they offer free advice to Willis's unfortunate former clients scrabbling in the legal mire.