WST
Bulge Bracket Investment Banks
What are Bulge Bracket Banks? It is actually a slang word used to describe some of the largest banks that involve themselves in profitable banking activities. These are the largest investment banks that operate around the world, which pretty much defeats the purpose of having this page, as they are almost in every major city. I believe if you are living in a large city, chances are, you are not far from one of the office buildings of these banks!
Having said so, even the largest and most powerful investment banks like the Bulge Brackets have evolved quite a bit over time - some of the former members of Bulge Brackets are no longer in business or merged with others. As this is not a history class, we should focus on the banks that are currently standing as the Bulge Brackets.
Rankings please? Most people and websites would not go into this topic, either because they are afraid of being branded "unprofessional" or risk having their heads put on the chopper. That is totally unnecessary. People clearly have identified JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as the top three, which are pretty much interchangeable on the ranking. (Well, to be exact, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are slightly more advantaged than JP Morgan.) These are the strongest Bulge Brackets that very few would believe otherwise. So I would put:
1. Goldman Sachs (HQ: New York, US)
2. Morgan Stanley (HQ: New York, US)
3. JP Morgan (HQ: New York, US)
However, people who are familiar with investment banking know that often bankers (or should I say slaves to bankers - analysts) do spend a great deal of their time to find out how their bank could look better on the list. "What? We are not No.1 on 1 billion deals? Then try 100 million!" As banking is a volatile sector, one should not keep fixated on who is better than others.
Now that the really difficult part comes in. The rest of the banks in Bulge Brackets are not so easily ranked. Barclays Capital is defintely one of the strongest in UK, but not so much elsewhere. Deutch bank is unrivaled in Germany, but in US it is by no means comparable to the big three we just listed up there. UBS, backed by its size, stands here as one of the major players, but not so much as it comes to M&A, etc., but is stronger in asset management. I would give the list as:
4. Barclays Capital (HQ: Zurich, Switzerland)
5. UBS (HQ: Zurich, Switzerland)
6. Deutsche bank (HQ: Frankfurt, Germany)
7. Citi (HQ: New York, US)
8. Credit Suisse (HQ: Zurich, Switzerland)
Again, despite the fact that this industry changes fast, it does not mean these listings and rankings are pointless. We should therefore keep tracking these banks down and see how they are doing with their businesses.
Bulge Bracket investment banks are the most difficult to break in. They favor target school kids but non-target school students can leverage on networking and gaining internship or relevant experience to beat the "Ivy kids".