Stan O'Neal, chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch, said he expects the bank's revenues in Europe and Asia to double by 2008 and Lloyd Blankfein, his counterpart at Goldman Sachs, predicted his firm's investment banking earnings will grow more quickly outside the US.

O'Neal said at the Merrill Lynch banking and financial services investor conference that global markets and investment banking revenues outside the US were growing faster than US revenues.