Still, at the top of the list will be fixing the retail brokerage business, which has significantly lagged behind its peers.

Fidelity's retail brokerage and mutual fund operations have 6.1 million customers.

Analysts said results were good in almost every area of the firm's business except retail brokerage.

"We think the slowdown in retail brokerage is not an aberration but a trend."

Each will choose its strengths and then focus on those businesses - retail brokerage, investment banking, foreign exchange or whatever.

During the 1990s, some retail brokerages sold consumers securities which did not meet their stated risk profile.

A wire house is another name for a retail brokerage.

The move was viewed by industry analysts as a reflection of the continued pressure on retail brokerages' profits.

Working in Goldman's favor these days is a major business that it does not have: a retail brokerage.

The firm also had an arbitrage group as well as retail brokerage and wealth management operations.