Corporate Banking to Credit Investing?
Hi I'm currently a first year analyst in a strong corporate banking group. I was wondering what types of potential exit opportunities exist for people in CB, and whether or not there could be a path into the credit investing space. Not looking for shops that have complex investing styles but rather just more vanilla strategies like rcf/tla/tlbs
Any insights would be appreciated. Thank you.
Hey there! Based on the most helpful WSO content, there are indeed several exit opportunities for people in Corporate Banking, and a path into the credit investing space is certainly one of them. Here are some potential paths you might consider:
Debt Investing: This is a common exit for corporate banking, especially loans. This could involve private credit funds, CLOs, and other credit funds.
Credit Related Roles: Many exits have been credit related. For example, Mezzanine, LevFin, Financial Sponsors, Direct Lending, FI trading desk, Credit Research at an institutional asset management shop, and even a MM PE shop (although this is very rare).
Infrastructure Fund or Investment Management: You could potentially exit to a credit fund, infrastructure fund or investment management arm of an insurer.
Loan Syndication/ Leveraged Finance: This is another common exit opportunity.
Relationship Management within Corporate Banking: This is another path you could consider.
Remember, like anything, exit ops are up to you. I've seen exits to PE, IB, corp dev, b school, management consulting, and many other career paths. At the VP and up level, common exits are treasurer roles, sometimes CFO roles, & other banks.
In corporate banking, you will learn how to understand and think about a company's capital structure. You'll learn a lot about the syndicated loan market as well as about DCM in general. This knowledge could be very valuable in a credit investing role.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Sources: BB Corporate Banking Exit Opps?, Corporate Banking?, Q&A: Corporate Banking Associate, Credit Analyst Exit Opps?
Bump
It really depends on how "strong" your group is. If you aren't at a CIB bank and don't model then it's going to be a hard sell. If you're in CIB and run models along with acquisition financings with IB then it's relatively easy if the market is open. This forum is still largely misinformed on corporate banking and thinks that only IB can break into credit and that's wrong. The MF credit arms typically prefer IB but MM DL's are much more diverse.
Corporate banking with the right group has solid exits. From my bank/group I've seen PE, corp dev, IB, and credit. Surprisingly most headhunters that ping me are offering LMM/MM PE and corp dev. I've had to turn them all down because I'm set on pursuing credit.
Can you DM me? Would love to ask a few questions
So I am at top BB coverage group doing credit covering MM clients w/ typical pro-rata, MM DL (bank debt), and TLBs. Our job is to take management / sponsor model, understand it and plug it into our own model to get our FCF payout. Would this be strong acumen to say I model that would get me interest in shops or would IB be necessary?
Btw we do M&A but on a pro forma basis and LBOs as well.
To answer your question, yes, there is a path from CB to private credit. But it's more difficult than if you were in a levfin role since at the junior level what is valued is modelling skills and overall product polish (both of which levfin develops more thoroughly than CB). I would not expect to get many looks for top tier shops, but mid tier is reasonable if you're willing to network and hone your modelling in your spare time.
Even if you were finding it tricky moving from CB to credit, is it fairly doable to jump into IB from CB?
Bump
I did it, CB to a distressed credit fund. PM questions if youd like.
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