Corporate Banking vs Corporate Finance

Hello, I'm looking at entry-level jobs and I was wondering which of these fields would better suit my long-term career goals. I am currently majoring in Economics at a non-target state school (3.7 expected GPA).

I'm aiming to get into a top MBA later down the line, so would Corporate Banking or corporate finance (FP&A) give me better leverage?

My ultimate career goal is in Asset Management (perhaps portfolio management?), so which of these jobs would provide me with more relevant/transferable skills?

Finally, from what I understand Corp Fin is very accounting-based, but I have no idea what kind of work Corp Banking entails. Would Corp Banking be more finance-oriented than Corp Fin?

Thanks!

 
Best Response

Corporate banking is a much more financially focused space than corporate finance. You'll be doing credit, underwriting/portfolio management or relationship management. In credit you'll be doing spreads, a lot of places offer credit training which is a huge plus. In underwriting and portfolio management you'll be modeling, spreading numbers, structuring and following your credits on an annual or more frequent basis (e.g. semi-annual for weak collateral credits, quarterly for special mentions and monthly for distressed). In relationship management you'll be in charge of the relationship with a company, you will pitch ideas (as an analyst you'll do the pitchbook) and for credit memos you may draft the relationship section (what tier are you in the bank group, relationship with management, ROE, LTM pre-tax, pre-provision profitability, strategy whether to up tier, down tier or remain the same).

It can lead to exits to credit focused AM (corporate bonds, loans, especially TLB, munis, CLOs) depends on what your focused on. For corporate bonds and loans either portfolio management/underwriting or relationship management will likely get you there, credit is the middle office of corporate banking, but it's not a bad place as an analyst if they let you have credit training. For munis you want to be in a government coverage group with either PM or RM as your function.

 

It depends on the shop. If its PNC, they are small. They almost never do anything besides participate in syndications. They never get right lead. They almost never get left lead, unless they are dealing with small regional companies. It will be the equivalent of working for a commercial bank in the middle of alabama.

At bigger shops, you will get left lead mandates for F500 companies - which is very good transaction exposure, and you learn how credit deals are structured. Its pretty cool shit, and you will learn a TON about the clients you underwrite.

In sum, the big banks do the real work on syndications; the small banks look at which big banks are in on the deal, and they follow.

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Cries:
It depends on the shop. If its PNC, they are small. They almost never do anything besides participate in syndications. They never get right lead. They almost never get left lead, unless they are dealing with small regional companies. It will be the equivalent of working for a commercial bank in the middle of alabama.

At bigger shops, you will get left lead mandates for F500 companies - which is very good transaction exposure, and you learn how credit deals are structured. Its pretty cool shit, and you will learn a TON about the clients you underwrite.

In sum, the big banks do the real work on syndications; the small banks look at which big banks are in on the deal, and they follow.

thank you so much for this insight! it's actually not pnc, a little bigger but pretty similar. ill pm you the name!
 

Currently 3 years post grad M.S from a non target business school. Have been with Big 4 in a tax roll since graduation. Specific tax roll I am in we do a ton of work with financials so we get a good amount of audit foundation as well. Trying to break out of tax and get a shot at a corporate banking role. I know this is extremely difficult but have a few good friends in the industry who have helped with my resume and will put in a referral for me. Targeting smaller-middle market banks as an analyst/associate. Really just trying to get my foot in the door regardless of specific role. My question is if it didn't work out with the referrals, would a part time mba from NYU or Baruch be a reasonable path to break into corporate banking? Desperately want out of Tax and accounting in general, Do not want to go the full time route at a non target.

 

The corporate banking internship will definitely set you up better for IBD/MBB next summer. Corporate banking is pretty much IBD with half the hours, and now with IBD bonuses getting slashed, the comp is getting closer to closer to par. This is a second-hand experience, but a good number of folks on the buy-side definitely respect the credit training you get in corporate banking.

 

may i ask, why corporate finance instead of corporate banking?

from what i heard/read, the corporate banking day to day responsibilities are pretty similar to ibanking- working on pitches, deals, doing valuation etc. of course the deals are not M&A deals, its mostly debt financing but still...kinda sounds more applicable

 

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