Wall Street’s most notorious critic of bank chief executives is not ready to shut up.
Mike Mayo, the bank analyst who’s taken on some of the world’s most powerful CEOs during a 25-year career, lost his job last month when Hong Kong-based firm CLSA shuttered its research department.
But Mayo, who calls himself a “free agent analyst,” says he’s undaunted and won’t stop digging into Wall Street CEOs’ businesses — whether they like it or not.
“I want to make sure that I can be me, and that means speaking truth to power, holding people accountable,” he told The Post in a series of interviews this week.
Mayo, a longtime bear regarding bank stocks, has been knocked down before — and not just by cantankerous CEOs.
He was cut loose from a brokerage in 2000 after telling investors to sell their shares of big banks.
Undaunted, he signed on with another firm and continued his unvarnished coverage of Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and others.
Let’s just say he wasn’t always welcomed at conferences.
This latest bump in the road couldn’t have come at a more incredible time for Mayo and the rest of his team — they got pink-slipped just 53 days after releasing a 91-page report that was bullish on banks.
It was Mayo’s first positive report in about 16 years.
Six months in the making, the report — which Mayo considers his masterpiece — is called “Back in Black” and features the analyst as AC/DC guitarist Angus Young.
“I got fired when I got as close to perfection as I possibly could get at my job,” said Mayo in his usual understated way.
Thinking about the accomplishment colliding with the loss of his job — and that moment in December when “Back in Black” was freshly delivered from the printer — Mayo started to break down during a recent lunch.
Mayo, who turned 54 on Tuesday, turned quiet, raised a napkin to his face and started to cry.
“I’m sorry. Oh, man. I’m so tired,” he said. “That was the moment. I got tears in my eyes.”
Mayo believes that there’s still a place for critical Wall Street analysis. “There’s a lot of dead weight out there,” he said. “Cut through the BS.“
He likened his perfectionist streak to that of Paul Cézanne, a 19th-century French painter who created his masterpieces late in life, as opposed to Pablo Picasso, whose early work is prized for its genius.
“I’m an artist! I’m Cézanne!” he said over his fish lunch. Where his next “studio” will be is anyone’s guess.
This day, as lunch ended, he said he’s considering starting his own firm. He even has a tagline: “Mike Mayo Research: No BS.”