Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- John A. Thain, who was ousted last week as president of global banking at Bank of America Corp., won’t be participating in a panel discussion about the future of the financial system at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Thain’s own future is now up in the air.

Richard S. Fuld, the former chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., who annually lectured more than a dozen of the world’s top financial journalists on risk at the Hotel Seehof in Davos, also won’t be at the meeting this week. His New York-based firm went bankrupt in September.

Martin J. Sullivan, the ex-CEO of American International Group Inc., which ranked among the forum’s highest-paying members until this year, is on the no-show list, as is former UBS AG Chairman Marcel Ospel who was replaced in April. They’re out of jobs after the world’s biggest financial institutions disclosed more than $1 trillion of writedowns and credit-market losses in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to come through this with even a moderate reputation intact,” said Charles Geisst, a finance professor at Manhattan College in New York and author of “Wall Street: A History.” “Everyone’s going down with the boat. No one seems to have seen this coming.”

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein, 54, and John J. Mack, his 64-year-old counterpart at New York-based Morgan Stanley, are skipping the event and sending deputies instead. Neither is available to greet clients in Davos, after both companies reported fourth-quarter losses and each accepted $10 billion from U.S. taxpayers in a government bailout last year.

‘Lower in Stature’

While there are a handful of Wall Street executives who emerged relatively unscathed from the financial unraveling, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s 52-year-old CEO Jamie Dimon, who will be in Davos, “the banks are far lower in stature,” said Roy Smith, a former Goldman Sachs partner who is now a finance professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “They have a lot more explaining to do and they really don’t know what to say.”

One banker who is keeping a high profile in Davos is Stephen Green, HSBC Holdings Plc’s chairman and a co-chairman of the annual meeting. At the event’s opening press conference, he was quizzed by one reporter for describing the problems as “complex.” While he defended his description, he said “that’s not to say that the banking industry doesn’t have something to apologize for, it does.”

‘Terrible Thing’

News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, another co- chairman of the event, singled out the cost of government bailouts required to sustain the financial system.

“It seems to me it’s a terrible thing that the taxpayers are going to have to pay for all the mistakes of the bankers over the last 20 years,” he said.

Barclays Plc, the U.K. bank that has lost 41 percent of its stock-market value this year, said yesterday that President Robert Diamond had canceled his Davos appearance, while Chairman Marcus Agius still planned to attend. Philip Yea, the CEO of 3i Group Plc, Europe’s biggest publicly traded hedge fund, also pulled out. Both firms are based in London.

Fuld, 62, who ran Lehman for 15 of his 39 years at the firm, received a $40 million bonus for 2007 after Lehman reported record earnings. With the company now out of business, Fuld is threatened by lawsuits and he deeded his $13.3 million Florida home to his wife last year.

Merrill Losses

“We lionize people, and then we’re surprised when, having taken a lot of risk, they get hammered,” said Fred Lane, 59, chief executive officer of Boston-based investment bank Lane Berry & Co. and a banker since the 1970s.

Thain will be remembered for the $15.3 billion fourth- quarter loss at Merrill Lynch & Co., which he sold to Bank of America last September, and for spending $1.2 million to redecorate his office as Merrill, the biggest U.S. brokerage firm, was losing money.

At Davos last year, the 53-year-old engineering graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology said New York-based Merrill, which he joined in December 2007 with a $15 million signing bonus, was “very well positioned to go forward into 2008” and that market volatility had been “very good for our business.”

Thain’s Office

The losses swelled by September, forcing Thain to twice tap investors for extra funds. He arranged the sale of Merrill on Sept. 14 to Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America that coincided with the bankruptcy of New York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fifth-largest U.S. securities firm, went bankrupt the same weekend.

President Barack Obama referred to Thain’s office decoration expenses on Jan. 23, as he promised to impose more restrictions on companies, such as Merrill and Bank of America, that received government money.

“This business with Thain will have a lot of resonance,” said Martin Mayer, 81, a guest scholar of the Brookings Institution, who has written books including “The Fed” and “The Bankers” about the financial system. “It’s going to be one of the iconic moments.”

Thain apologized in a Jan. 26 statement for the renovation and said he will reimburse the company for all of the costs incurred. His trip to Davos was canceled.

Leadership Panel

“The value system has changed over the years,” said Felix Rohatyn, 80, a former Lazard Freres & Co. banker and former U.S. ambassador to France. “It’s become a total money-value system. It used to be partly money, but it also was partly how you conducted yourself. Once the value system is driven by money, it’s very easy to go over the edge.”

For Goldman Sachs, attending Davos isn’t the best use of CEO Blankfein’s time, a company spokesman said. Blankfein was paid $68.5 million in fiscal 2007, when Goldman earned a record $11.6 billion. Mack had a scheduling conflict, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said.

AIG, the New York-based insurer bailed out last year by the government, said it has withdrawn its Davos sponsorship and isn’t sending anyone to the Swiss mountain resort.

JPMorgan’s Dimon will be participating in a panel discussion on leadership. JPMorgan bought Bear Stearns Cos. last March after customers and lenders deserted the New York-based investment bank, and then acquired Washington Mutual Inc.’s branches and assets in September after the biggest U.S. savings and loan was seized by federal regulators.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 28, 2009 08:03 EST