If you want to work for an investment bank that dominates in the vast majority of business areas, try J.P. Morgan. Failing that, Goldman Sachs is a good bet. And then Deutsche Bank. These banks have once again made the top three in the global investment banking rankings by data provider Coalition.
J.P. Morgan is top by virtue of leading across FICC and investment banking, and it’s renewed focus on equities has also paid off – it’s moved up the league tables to second. Goldman’s FICC division ranks outside the top three, suggests the data, but second places in equities and investment banking have ensured it comes up behind J.P. Morgan overall.
Deutsche Bank, which is one of the few banks to wholeheartedly persist with its focus on fixed income, is in third place largely thanks to its top three place in FICC. Elsewhere, it ranks between forth to sixth. Deutsche has, however, slid down the rankings in FICC – at the end of Q1 it was equal first in this business area, but has since fallen to third. J.P. Morgan and Citigroup are the top FICC investment banks.
But in an era of swift and deep headcount cuts, perhaps it’s worth also worth looking at banks where performance is on the up – here, according the analysis, the two firms to work for are Morgan Stanley and BNP Paribas.
Morgan Stanley in particular has moved up the rankings across all business areas – FICC, equities and investment banking division, as well as improving its overall position relative to its peers, according to the new global investment bank league table by data provider Coalition. However, equities is where it’s taken the lead.
The US bank is now the number one in equities and has moved up within its advisory business, even if it’s only the 6th ranked investment bank overall. This is likely to be down to its top three position in both equity capital markets and M&A during the first half, rather than revenues in debt capital markets.
Morgan Stanley’s dominance in equities is likely to be down to its performance in cash equities and prime services – rather than derivative products – as the bank held the number one slot for these business areas in the first half of 2014, according to Coalition data.
BNP Paribas, meanwhile, which has just shaken up its investment bank and signalled a move away from fixed income, has improved across both FICC and equities. Overall, though, BNP is still an outsider – ranking tenth overall and between 7-10 in all business lines.
UBS, which has a traditional strength in equities and announced plans to exit certain fixed income business as it slimmed down its investment bank, has lost ground in this area. At the beginning of 2013, UBS was ranked first in equities, and was still in third spot after the first quarter of 2014. Now, it’s ranked between 4-6 and is outside of the top seven in all other business lines.
UBS’s propensity for hiring senior investment bankers has paid off a little, however, with the Swiss bank moving up the rankings slightly in its investment banking division.
