On Monday Warren Buffett released his annual letter to the shareholders of his company, Berkshire Hathaway, and in the letter he criticized the bankers involved in making deals happen. In summary, his letter criticized the way bankers are compensated when completing mergers and acquisitions of banks and other lending institutions.

Since 2008 there have been just over 130 transactions completed that involved purchasing banks for more than $1 billion each. In some situations, the transactions involved purchasing more than one bank simultaneously. In total those transactions raised over $3.3 billion in advisory services and commissions for those people who put those transactions together. Clearly, some of the transactions have not ended up being smart investments and more caution should have been taken initially. Unfortunately, the large amount of fees earned blinded many of the investors and brokers into investing in a deal which was not properly analyzed.

As the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett has long been considered one of the world’s most successful investors and is one of the richest people in the world. Buffett, who still resides in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, is often referred to by his nickname of “The Oracle of Omaha.”