SECOND TEAM Edward Garlich Jr. & team  MF Global

The team at MF Global debuts in second place under the leadership of Washington-based Edward Garlich Jr., who helmed last year’s No. 2 crew representing Concept Capital. (MF acquired Washington Research Group from the latter in November.) The analysts earn high praise from Wall Street for political, legislative and regulatory coverage and analysis that is both broad and deep. “They are close to their contacts — but not so close that it blinds them,” asserts one advocate. In May, after concluding that banks incur a processing cost of about 4 cents, on average, per debit card transaction, the MF researchers broke with the consensus by predicting that the Federal Reserve Board would impose a much higher cap on fees for those transactions than the 12 cent limit the central bank had proposed in December. (At the time, banks were charging 44 cents, on average; imposition of a cap on these fees was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.) The MF researchers believed that the Fed would impose a 20 cent cap, and they were close. In late June the Fed agreed to allow banks to charge swipe fees of up to 24 cents per transaction. “They have been all over the implications of Dodd-Frank,” cheers another client.