Some board members are keen on a European investment-banking tie-up, perhaps with Banque Nationale de Paris, which recently took control of a rival French bank, Paribas, and which has a longstanding alliance (and small cross-shareholding) with Dresdner.
Throughout glittering careers in which they alternated high-profile government jobs with profitable stints in banking, the Mendonca de Barros brothers and Mr Lara Resende broke no rules, but attracted the envy of less talented mortals.
Bernanke is worried about the parlous state of the de-leveraging U.S. economy, and possibly worried that the U.S. banking sector is not strong enough to weather more currency turbulence.