RBC Investment Banking Future

Hey guys, I'm a current junior and have accepted an offer from RBC IBD for a summer internship. I'm just curious what the general opinion is about the future of RBC. From what I hear, RBC has a great culture and is recruiting aggressively to try and grow it's presence and brand name in the US. Please let me know what your thoughts are about its current (and potential future) prestige and exit opps.

 

Not sure about long term growth prospects but heard they are paying like boutiques for bonuses. Would like confirmation on this.

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 

I am in a similar situation…although I am on the S&T side of things. I visited RBC @ 200 Vesey…The culture really is fantastic. I was told very similar things from upper management as you were told. Future appears bright.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. Anyone have any ideas which groups are the best? Right now I'm networking with the lev fin and M&A groups because I don't think I want to go into a coverage group.

 

What MM wouldn't like to be a BB? But anyways, they have made huge strides in the US in the last couple years. Heard culture is great from 2 buddies in S&T, not sure about IBD but in general Canadian shit is cool. Better than Macquarie. Harris Williams is more regional and doesn't have the balance sheet that RBC has; as such, RBC gets in on LevFin deals (have seen them on a lot of stuff on LCD and Loanconnector).

I think M&A, Tech, NatRes, and HC are all good groups.

 

Great info, thx. How should one interpret this:

1.According to data gleaned from deal tracker Thomson Financial, RBC Capital Markets completed 15 M&A transactions in 2010, ahead of JP Morgan (12), Morgan Stanley (11) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (11).

Analystforhire: Can you elaborate on Canadian shit is cool? Does the Canadian culture carry over to the US? Do they staff MDs from Canada in the US? Thx

 
sk8247365:
Great info, thx. How should one interpret this:

1.According to data gleaned from deal tracker Thomson Financial, RBC Capital Markets completed 15 M&A transactions in 2010, ahead of JP Morgan (12), Morgan Stanley (11) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (11).

Once you start working as an analyst you will quickly learn that whenever a firm slices the data by "Number of Transactions" rather than "Deal Value" it's almost a sure sign that they work on much smaller transactions than their supposed "peers". For instance go look at the article below (I know this isn't the same stat as you were quoting but it illustrates the point). Look where RBC ended up against JPM, MS, and BAML.

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/01/03/morgan-stanley-takes-the-2010-ma-…

 

I think the consensus that's been expressed on here in the past is that RBC is doing very well in the spaces they focus heavily on (have heard they do a lot of Nat Res stuff), but that it would be quite difficult for a Canadian bank to ever really push on to global BB status. But there are certainly a few industries/regions where you wouldn't be wrong to choose RBC over some of the BB's.

 

It doesn't matter if a bank is BB or not, RBC is unquestionably killing it right now, that's all that matters.

Now stop questioning your offers, be proud that you got them, and focus on killing it no matter where you are. Shut up and getback to work, haha.

“Millionaires don't use astrology, billionaires do”
 
Nouveau Richie:
It doesn't matter if a bank is BB or not, RBC is unquestionably killing it right now, that's all that matters.

Now stop questioning your offers, be proud that you got them, and focus on killing it no matter where you are. Shut up and getback to work, haha.

Haha I do not work for RBC or have an offer out for them. I would kill to be able to work there though.

 

They are doing well and would say getting to a Jefferies type level, however still think they carry a bit of a stigma w/ the whole Canadian thing. No wouldn't say they're a "BB", as of now. To get there from what I've seen, is they need to start consistently getting on the short list of debt and or equity offerings for the lead left / co-bookrunner slot to move into BB land. Historically (last 2-3 yrs that is), RBC has been known to try to squeeze in at lower bookrunner levels on higher profile deals. The BB's are BB's because they cater most of the time to bigger public companies where they can put their big balance sheets to work w/ cap markets deals due to the relatively low risk high reward vs. M&A which carries a lot more risk from both the sell-side and buy-side mandates. And the idea has been that relationships with those big public comps will flow through to the M&A / advisory side.

Ace all your PE interview questions with the WSO Private Equity Prep Pack: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/private-equity-interview-prep-questions
 

The one thing I was truly impressed with about RBC was the type of talent they have at the associate, vp, and upper management levels. I think this was the first year they've taken SAs on the West Coast; they've really only started up their IB practice post fin crisis, so for about only 4-5 years now. I think it's very appropriate to compare RBC to Jefferies, except RBC has done it in 5 years, whereas it took Jefferies about a good decade to become a major player.

 

Quite curious as well. Here's my 2 cents as someone who has interned there on co-op (not NY):

Top in Canada by a decent margin across the board, #1 or #2 in every product. In London they are growing, and are in a position to poach top talent but probably not the same scale as in 2008-2012.

Their London and NY offices are bigger than their HQ Toronto office. They have a cautious/conservative growth outlook for most of their business lines.

The culture has been described as military like, but I really think that is an overstatement. They are really big though on winning/perfection, especially with anything client facing, but imo everyone I met was on the whole pretty nice and smart.

Maybe it's just me, but there seemed to be a decent number of "lifers" there.

In terms of quality of people, I don't think they are that different than most of the BB's, they just have a more conservative culture and have only recently started focussing on the US franchise (they grew a lot in the aftermath of the recession). IMO though a solid bank to be at for the next 5 years, especially given mkt conditions, probably is one of the few ones growing S&T.

 

RBC bank (pronounced "pee-'n-see") is being sold off this year, which will likely result in the Royal Bank focusing its effort on strengthening the IB/Corporate Banking operations. That said, I'm not sure how much worse of a place it is to work than any of the others you mentioned. My guess (based on no real facts) is that job security will be relatively solid. Always gotta deal with the systematic job risk of being in high finance though.

 

To me they seem like an up and coming investment/corporate bank that was only strengthened by the financial crisis as it expanded more in the states. However, I feel like there are less systematic stress for RBC as it is HQ'd in Canada and subject to stricter capital and regulatory requirements. Thus the commercial and retail part of RBC can adequately provide enough safe capital for its more risky corporate side.

 

Not really. Get surprised with their name popping up on mergermarket.com updates some mornings. Bout the extent I follow their deal flow.

Ace all your PE interview questions with the WSO Private Equity Prep Pack: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/private-equity-interview-prep-questions
 

Analysts there have told me that they pitch all the time but not winning mandates on big deals. They'll hire new MD's who no incentives to bring in fees because they're all on 2-year guaranteed contracts. This leads me to believe that a large portion of their U.S. business is based off of RBC's balance sheet.

 
Solidarity:
Analysts there have told me that they pitch all the time but not winning mandates on big deals. They'll hire new MD's who no incentives to bring in fees because they're all on 2-year guaranteed contracts. This leads me to believe that a large portion of their U.S. business is based off of RBC's balance sheet.
Your analyst friends must be in shitty groups then.
 

do a search. i've talked about them before. knew a few people that worked there specifically in the healthcare group. it was hell according to them. pitching all the time, rarely won (except for the shitty deals). all in all, culture sucked, deal flow sucked. needless to say, the people i knew there did not have many options for solid exit opps

 

Strong in HOU for Energy. Have been crushing the A&D deals as of late.

Ace all your PE interview questions with the WSO Private Equity Prep Pack: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/guide/private-equity-interview-prep-questions
 

obviously RBC is a dominant bb in canada. in the us, their goal is to become a top mm player...to a certain degree they already are if you look at mm league tables. they also have great trading desks in ny. they're known to pay street and i heard culture is great. they expand with caution so they rarely have big layoffs when things go sour and they are relatively unscathed from the credit mess. probably a good opportunity for them to expand further while the big guys contract. overall, i think a solid company with a lot of things aligned in the right direction.

 

Distinctio magni reprehenderit blanditiis porro eum similique. Delectus amet perspiciatis provident optio repellat quia esse earum. Et eum consequatur reiciendis quia ipsa.

Doloremque explicabo placeat incidunt sed. Adipisci incidunt saepe rerum vitae maxime. Illum voluptatibus ea et voluptas voluptatibus et dolores. Laborum non sed non eum accusamus eos ab.

"I'm not sure what the four 9's do, but the ace, I think, is pretty high."
 

Voluptas iure ut dolorum voluptate dignissimos repellat. Ratione esse perferendis sit. Voluptates est voluptatem ut omnis cumque quia. Fuga laudantium ad voluptas est provident magni impedit. Quia exercitationem nobis exercitationem pariatur reprehenderit inventore id.

Quo atque tempore dolores. Deserunt et blanditiis ad dolores minus cumque consequatur expedita. Exercitationem sed fuga est autem praesentium ex sit. Earum aut incidunt quidem aliquid et ut iusto.

 

Quia neque labore vitae odio voluptatibus id sapiente. Facere laboriosam maiores dolor eius animi recusandae temporibus nesciunt. Optio mollitia expedita qui voluptas eveniet. Enim enim beatae et porro consequuntur.

Commodi dignissimos quia eum eum exercitationem voluptatem vero praesentium. Nostrum illum pariatur consequatur magnam est. Incidunt et maiores ea non. Quam numquam ad temporibus et nihil odio odio recusandae.

Impedit qui cupiditate corrupti quaerat labore. Autem doloremque corporis autem eum enim ea. Laborum quae nemo occaecati est recusandae cumque.

 

Accusamus nihil alias corporis sunt eos molestias enim. In eos incidunt velit temporibus. Aspernatur tempora sunt accusamus enim perferendis aliquid.

Laudantium temporibus modi dolores magni. Non necessitatibus voluptatum voluptatem ipsa pariatur omnis ea dolores. Dolores non ipsa occaecati voluptate hic rerum tempora. Consectetur omnis recusandae qui doloremque consequuntur et.

Quos error eos ea perferendis eius dicta fugit. Voluptate quos minima voluptas fugiat voluptatum porro. Nobis minima odit laborum unde est quas. Nobis nam ut sequi. Voluptatem earum excepturi ea autem culpa laboriosam.

 

Mollitia et placeat sit quibusdam eius nulla. Atque alias est impedit repudiandae est aspernatur placeat. Et qui iure ullam minima repellendus. Est qui ipsam sit inventore dignissimos.

Voluptatem perspiciatis beatae amet doloremque. Repudiandae et amet provident ipsam sint et. Autem quaerat similique iure distinctio. Veritatis quia illo nostrum voluptatem minus.

Quia omnis quaerat sed aut perferendis et facilis. Inventore soluta omnis quis repellendus porro dolores quia.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”