Credit Suisse is considering limiting access to its analysts for as many as half of its 200 institutional clients. The thinking is that it will help analysts up the quality of research because they would be able to spend more time on investigative analysis and less time on calls, said Stefano Natella, global head of research.

Analysts are encouraged not to call clients dropped from the list but they aren't required to ignore phone calls. For analysts, this means spending more time with clients who do the most trading with the firm. Analyst access in the technology, media and telecom sectors will likely not be cut because hedge-funds trade a lot of these stocks.

"[When analysts have fewer customers] they do more special projects, travel less and have more meetings with management," an analyst at Wachovia Securities said. But some analysts at Credit Suisse aren't excited. "I don't think there would be much change. Maybe less time in the air," said one.

Research directors at other firms say there is no way that half of the clients will be shut out because such a move could be a detriment to maintaining commission flow. Restrictive client access policies are difficult to enforce because many funds have longstanding relationships with analysts, and valuable sector information is often disseminated from the buy-side to the sell-side, analysts said. "Analysts don't want to give their work away to small shops who haven't paid in years, but sometimes they do because they have good relationships with individuals [at those firms]," said David Easthope, an analyst at consultancy Celent.

Buy-side firms have already felt a pinch from the brokerage. "I've gone to plenty of [research] conferences at Credit Suisse, but when I asked my analyst about their chemical conference in September he told me not to show because I wouldn't get in. That's the first time that's happened," said one hedge fund manager. "If they stop returning my calls I'll survive. I don't need to dance with everyone in the room," the manager said.