Three-Legged Stool Across Sovereigns

“Lazard Partners is indeed an unusual bank, which has always operated on three legs - Lazard Frères in New York, Lazard Brothers in London, and Lazard Frères in Paris - and is endowed with a very rare legal status: that of a partnership. Its members are therefore liable with their personal assets.”

“Their American base, their intact international network, as well as their two major specializations - foreign exchange and the financing of gold transfers - suddenly became major assets. While bonds collapsed and the franc quickly lost two-thirds of its pre-war value, London and New York fully benefited from the paralysis of the old European financial centers. Over the post-war years, these gentlemen from Lazard thus set up a magical New York-London-Paris triangle, governed by a top-tier team that made the firm a true hidden power. Governments would often call on them. The talent and genius of the partners during this delicate period was to always think big and international.”