RBS Singapore vs. Nomura Singapore vs. SocGen NY vs. BNP NY vs. Macquarie NY

I'm based in Singapore, and I can tell you this much - Nomura does okay, obviously with a little bit of a focus on Japanese clients/targets. Mergermarket's SEA league tables put it at 18th for 2012.

Avoid RBS Singapore like the plague. RBS IBD is going down the shithole over here in Asia.

I guess you heard that RBS is winding down their M&A? Just stay away from them.

Well if your top choice end goal is BB IBD in NY, then it'd make more sense to pick one of the offers in NY. That way you can at least network hard over the summer for better FT offers in NY.

SocGen NY = BNP NY > Nomura Singapore > Macquarie NY > RBS Singapore

Thanks for the replies, guys. So it looks like Macquarie & RBS are clearly at the bottom. Are SocGen & BNP > Nomura solely for geographical reasons (i.e. I'm able to network during the summer)? Or do BB bankers look at experience in NY as being superior to Singapore experience, all else equal? Or are SocGen/BNP (in NY) simply considered as better than Nomura (S'pore)?

I think it's somewhat true that NY experience is superior to Singapore, unless you really want to work in Asia. I'm not sure about Nomura Singapore's deal flow and it seems like they are shifting away their ex-Japan focus.

unless you are tri-lingual, go to nyc

Singapore isn't a bad place to be at all. While China is seeing deceleration in deal flow, southeast Asia is not, so Singapore offices appear more attractive in terms of experience than their HK counterparts.

RBS/Nomura/SocGen/BNP are all similar caliber banks, so the differentiating factor would be the NYC location. At that point, the decision is really SocGen v. BNP, and that is where you start thinking about group placement and culture.

By the way - BBs in Singapore pay ~US$90-100k for first-years... base.

On which you get hit with an effective tax rate of

hk is about that, tax rate 15%