Anyone like/dislike banks for random reasons?

I was wondering if anyone else was like me and had random banks they liked or disliked for dumb reasons. It can be anything but I'll list mine:

Like:

  • I always liked BMO simply because of its colors and the idea they are French Canadian. Don't know why I like that so much but I do.
  • UBS's logo was always so cool to me. I also think red is too underused in branding. Also, I randomly think they are the nicest guys of BBs.
  • I love the Jefferies font. That's all.
  • I like the fact that Macquarie is Australian. Seems like everyone's crazy but fun cousin or something.

Dislike:

  • I always disliked the purple in Guggenheim's branding. I just don't think purple should be in a logo
  • For some reason, BAML always rubbed me the wrong way. The Bank of AMERICA and red, white, and blue made me think they are government related and so I dislike them even though this is completely false (note BMO's colors are the same but better shades (namely the blue))
  • Rothschild always gave me snoody vibes
  • Houlihan Lokey's colors give me Vanderbilt vibes and I don't know what that says. Also don't like they are headquartered in LA and the name is odd to me.

Anyone else got some?

 

There’s obviously all types of people in every bank and it is group dependent. But the employees from UBS NY know that their footprint is less than their peers. So my guess is that this houses more people that don’t really value prestige to the extent other banks do. Has more “nice guys”. I guess it’s easy to be caught up with the name of your bank. GS/MS attract top talent but some of this talent might not be as “nice” as other banks. Arrogance, lack of humility, prestige whores etc.

 

No doubt about that, if I had decided to stay in the west coast they would be my top option. I’m down for some batshit crazy suffering and no life for 2 years. Totally worth it

 

lol at all the shit i am getting for this post (likely from moelis analysts that need to justify their 110hr hell weeks)

and for the record, I was not rejected at moelis.  from employees committing suicide, staffers sending 3am bed check emails, ken moelis working in the office until 11pm every night and everyone terrified to leave before him - and the overall reputation for having the WORST hours on the street (every finmeme account has basically made moelis a parody at this point) - working there is gonna be a big no from me dawg.

never met an analyst at moelis that enjoyed their life.

 

FYI all of the things you listed are things that happen across the street, other firms have just been better at keeping them hidden/not letting scandals get out. Moelis has taken active measures to address the idea of it being a sweatshop and if you talk to people at the firm they will tell you they enjoy it. Like any top firm (particularly EBs), being at Moelis comes with long hours at times given the increased responsibility at the analyst level (or every level for that matter). Everything in life comes with a trade-off. You might get worked but you are well compensated for it, get great work experience and end up exiting exceptionally well. People have to stop spreading this false idea that Moelis is THE sweatshop and a hellish place to work. Funny how many of the people who spread this rumor likely don’t even have the chops to get a first round interview there. It’s a false narrative, it’s the same experience as any other top group. Anyone who is actually in the know will tell you it’s a great opportunity (and they do). This is shown time and time again by the caliber of people they hire and the caliber of the firm.

 

This actually makes me sad, I think the extent that Moelis gets shit on forums like this/meme accounts is blown out of proportion, and i wouldn't go so far as to say I don't respect them... I respect them a lot.

I personally loved networking with Moelis, as everyone I spoke to was open and friendly. 

I think at least they owned up to the issues (which, let's be honest pretty much every bank has) and have actively worked to fix it. Can't say the same for.... ex: PJT

 

You're an entitled moron / prick. There are plenty of kids that might bust their ass and get one offer. Tons of kids working their ass off from less than privileged backgrounds trying to break in and a job at Moelis is a dream come true... Then there are plenty of kids who really want to work in IB for the exits, you think they're going to take a MM bank or not do IB because they have to work 110 hours vs 100 to get to where they want? Plenty of groups across the street known for horrible culture, just because your view of banking comes from insta accounts doesn't mean no one at Moelis is respectable 

I am fortunate for not having to go to Moelis but I'm not ignorant enough to think no one should accept an offer there...

 

If you look at one of the finance meme Instagram accounts, you’ll see that Rich Handler feels the need to comment on basically every post

 

Same. A chip on the shoulder during the whole process, and constantly questioning if I actually wanted to go to Citi and wasn't using them as back-up. Pretty weird. 

 

William Blair - kinda like their logo

PJT - nice color and logo could be abstract art or something

BofA - their color scheme and slide template is ugly

Wells Fargo - same as BofA

Jefferies - have heard enough stories from junior people..toxic culture mixed with bad leadership at the top

Rothschild - name makes you think it's super elitist, yet meh deal flow in the US (not sure if true, completely made that up by the fact that I have never met a single person who has worked there)

 

Jefferies sounds extremely silly to people outside of finance

 

MS employees are brutal to network with. Culture there still a decade behind

 

Goldman Sachs - Makes me think of Mr. Krabs, just penny pinchers and greedy

JP Morgan - Makes me think of Jamie Dimon's annoying voice - this is the bank where the Cogs from Toontown probably worked

BofA - Makes me think of both of my nuts and a nice summer day in Bryant Park

Morgan Stanley - Makes me think of white, prep school, trust fund kids named "Brad" or "Kate" 

Barclays - Makes me think of the Nets...potential, but always sad like their NY office location

Credit Suisse - Makes me think of chain smoking Europeans asking if you have blow, 3:00am in Greenpoint

UBS - Sick logo and I never met anyone who works here, don't think they exist?

Jefferies - Eyebrows

Rothschild - Makes me think of the poshest British accent

Lazard - Makes me think of evil Lizard people

Evercore - Makes me think of those nerds in high school who never showered and always had the test-banks

Citi - Makes me think of unreliable and overpriced bikes 

Moelis - Makes me think of Moe from the Simpsons - lonely, miserable, and hateful souls 

Deutsche Bank - Makes me think of a big pile of Dookie - Dookie Bank

 

What’s the chance that we think about the exact thing when citi comes to mind

 

Oh man... I legit didn't think there's another soul alive who played Toontown.

Wish I could SB more than once...

 

That was gold haha. Seriously Morgan Stanley is WASP town and always will be. Just look at the origins of the bank next to First Boston back in the day. I remember my superday where I saw a few white kids with IVY banker bags flexin (yes I can attest to this). I mean nothin wrong with that but I knew what I was getting myself into lol. 

 

Barclays: I am not a fan of their logo. Seems like something from the 80's/90's that didn't even look that great then.

Credit Suisse: Rolls off the tongue really well. Plus regular people think Swiss banks are secretive and cool.

Deutsche Bank: Their logo looks like they really want you to know they are all about forward slashes.

Evercore: Sounds like the most generic corporate name you could think up. 

 

for what it's worth, Evercore was named for "everlasting core values"

 

first that comes to mind

Goldman Sachs - "diversity"

JP Morgan - dimon makes gray hair look spectacular

BofA - the weird smell inside of their retail banks

Morgan Stanley - times square 

Barclays - harden to the nets? 

UBS - logo 

Jefferies - eyebrows / rich ceo's of instagram

Rothschild - family $

Lazard - i forgot how to pronounce it 

hsbc - airport 

pwp - hr posts on wso 

Citi - bikes  

Moelis - sweatshop 

Deutsche Bank - to bb or not to bb 

bnp paribas - how to pronounce it? 

wells - fraud 

lehman - @dickfuld

What is the answer to 99 out of 100 questions?
 

Morgan Stanley: The dumb one in my group of friends got a BO job at MS in a weird city and now I associate the entire bank with him

BMO: I don't know what BMO was. I watch MLS and I saw their logo on Toronto FC's jerseys and I thought it was like a health insurance company or something. When I learned it was "Bank of Montreal" I was very conflicted. "Bank of Montreal" sounds dope, but the logo and initials annoy me. Can't tell how I feel about BMO.

Bank of America: BofA deez nuts. I can't get over it.

Wells Fargo: My grandparents lived on the west coast and they had Wells Fargo and would send me checks for birthdays/xmas. They weren't bazillionaires by any stretch of the imagination but they were well-to-do so I associated Wells with being "rich". Also, I love the stagecoach logo.

French Banks: Both my parents speak French and I am just below conversational. I think they all sound sick. Lazard was better when it was Lazard Freres & Co.

Evercore: Doesn't sound like a bank. What a weird name.

Barclays: Grew up watching EPL and hearing announcers say Barclays in a British accent so it feels sexy to me

Jefferies: Sounds like an auction house

 

There was a meme a few years ago where someone would ask if you’d want some BOFA (pronounced bow-fuh). Inevitably you’d ask what BOFA is, and they’d reply “BOFA deez nuts! Hah, gottem.”

BofA used to be named “Bank of America Merril Lynch” after they purchased Merril Lynch in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis. They were called BAML, but they recently rebranded and dropped the Merril Lynch name, so now they call themselves BofA (pronounced “bee-of-ay”). All of their emails are addressed @bofa, and many people who work there will correct you if you call it BAML.

So, BOFA DEEZ NUTS! Comes to mind when you see “BofA” for many people. I am included in this group of people.

 

Everyone I know that knows BMO pronounces it as “be-mo” instead of saying the acronym and that’s always made me think of it as a much smaller bank than it is. Smaller than its peers, but a pretty big bank in Canada

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

Like: any bank that didn't require a cover letter

Dislike: any bank that required a cover letter

 
Controversial

I place a huge prestige premium on whether or not the bank still holds the name of their Founders / original partners, especially if they sound a little ominous or convey old-world hierarchy. In particular: Rothschild, Lazard (was better when they were Lazard Frères though), Barclays, Lehman (RIP), Nomura (on the Asia side), etc. (GS/MS/JPM all fit in this too and so are cool, but the names are just a bit more saturated in the American public conscious.) I love the idea that I can refer to my financial institution as a "House" - like if something interesting was being rumored on the street, the local financial rag of record could say something totally pompous like "There's intrigue brewing in the House of Rothschild" or "Word is that there's discontent among the ranks at the House of Barclays."  Finance is converging on these grotesque faceless mega brands, so I like the legacy of some old dead guy's name on the door because it makes you believe it's still possible to leave those kinds of legacies.

The worst name in all of Finance IMO is BNP Paribas, which is headquartered in Paris and is a merger of two different banks that were basically both called "Bank of Paris" and yet instead of merging the brand in an elegant way, they just tacked on two mangled corporate names in an ugly redundant way to create a dumb corporate Frankenstein brand.  Banque de Paris would be a very cool and chic global finance brand, yet these idiots want to fly under some alphabet soup banner.  WTF are you guys doing?

“Millionaires don't use astrology, billionaires do”
 

I have an imagine that Guggenheim is old street af because their CEO ran Bear. Didn’t recruit here at all and I haven’t caught up with my college buddy joined here in a bit so there is nothing backing this up.

BofA: they’re a credit card company that picked up ML at a Black Friday sale to create an IB platform that only does debt syndication.

 

Morgan Stanley. It's just that they act like their the top bank, and they'll never have the swag of Goldman. Like chill. 

Also do not like BAIRD, just the name

Ones I like: PJT has a sick logo, BMO has cool colors agreed, Greenhill has a chill name, and Barclays has the best BB logo.

 

When I was in college, I interviewed at Perella Weinberg after receiving an offer elsewhere first so I decided to just put my balls on the table and ask some REAL questions. I asked this one associate who worked there “what do YOU do for fun?” 

This associate stared blankly at me and seemed nervous. He hadn’t had fun in years. To make matters worse, he no longer m remembered the answer he memorized while recruiting long ago. (The true answer was polishing his pitch books before drifting off to sleep, but these days he was too tired and stressed to do even that.) In a rare moment of honesty, he told me the truth. 

“Watering my ferns,” he said, after an uncomfortable pause.

I turned down my PwP offer on account of this conversation. 

 

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