For a firm run by men and women who make a living advising companies which businesses to buy and sell, Credit Suisse's own expansion in Australia should have been a flawless case study in profit creation.

Instead, the European bank's biggest strategic play here, the purchase of one quarter of EL&C Baillieu, looks like a case of retail stockbrokers – the burger-flippers of finance – outsmarting investment bankers, who regard themselves as the industry's rockstars.