Wall Street stands to lose a lot with the GE Capital spinoff

General Electric is spinning off its financial services unit, GE Capital, and with it will go a huge chunk of business for Wall Street.

The multinational conglomerate had been, until now, Wall Street's best corporate client, forking out up to $5.1 billion to investment bankers over the past 15 years, reports Antony Currie for The New York Times.

Most of GE's $300 million-a-year bond sales business, for example, came from GE Capital.

Now, the financial unit is already starting to cut back on activity, including an anouncement on Friday that it would scale back its commercial paper business.

The deal-making itself has provided some business for Wall Street - for both big and small institutions, including the emerging star boutique Centerview Partners.

But it looks like, in other departments, Wall Street has a lot to lose.

Read the full story in The New York Times »