You have a consulting background and no banking experience. We hate consultants - what value can you bring to the table?

I appreciate the answer because some people need to be more ethical

Perhaps one way of sidestepping the issue is to explain that we are individuals beneath the labels that are put on us and to list the candidates' strengths as an individual.

Then it's an opportunity to build bridges between consulting and IB: these strengths would have been successfully demonstrated in a consulting environment which is similar to a banking environment in certain respects: attention to detail, without losing track of the whole picture, attention to deadline...

This doesn't mean playing down the challenges a consultant may face when transitioning and it would be a smart question to ask if given the opportunity (and of course, the consultant, being a consultant, would already have an opinion on the subject and be able to argue it using a 2x2 ;) )

The answer was certainly ill-phrased if not ill-thought.

nothing like telling the interviewer they lack skills, better to take the politicians route and answer a question that wasn't asked. perhaps:

"Its not that consultants lack experience in the same way that a graduate does, a consultant joining investment banking needs to make the leap between knowledged learned in one area - Oil trading - and equity settlements but they are taught to be able to do that. I don't think I've got the whole picture as I sit in front of you, but I think my CV demonstrates that I've got some dots already and the ability to connect those dots".

Though I'm b*ggered to know what a consultant does bring to a bank... :-)

Flippant reply, typical of consultants - deserves to get his butt kicked.