Could anyone please give me a heads up on which bank would be the best place to start my career in DCM/capital markets? I am thinking about Citigroup, Lehman, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. You are welcome to add any other bank to the list. Thanks in advanced for your reply.
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You need to get the offers. I give you points for cockiness, though.
Thanks for your reply. I've already got an offer from Citigroup and wonder if I should interview with other banks as well.
it depends on what you mean by DCM. For example, some banks put high yield and leveraged loan underwriting under the DCM umbrella, while others don't. If you're talking pure play capital markets DCM (syndications and high yield desks, etc.), I think the balance sheet banks are good (JPM and Citi), as well as those who support good leveraged finance groups (CS and UBS).
Thanks for your reply. The field in Capital Markets I am looking at primarily is Structued Finance,e.g. CDOs, Structured Credit Derivatives, or structured solutions groups. I am also thinking about Leveraged Finance, if the banks include it under DCM. But I heard LevFin is just like IB, of which the lifestyle and hours are drastically different from other stanfard DCM groups.
are you looking at trading CDOs? b/c DCM is IBD where CDO and CD trading is S&T.
I have no intention to be a trader or sales person at this point. I am looking at structuring & origination.
product structuring/origination - who goes into this stuff? is it for quants only? is it really obscure and you end up specializing hardcore your 1st year?
i don't hear about htat stuff very often. i also don't remember hearing about anyone making $5m bonuses in structuring.
Isn't Citi dominant in DCM?
Yes, Citi is very strong in DCM. Also, structured finance is an extremely hot industry right now, and it is neither IBD nor S&T (yes there's more to life out there, people). It is private-side, though, so it's more like banking than s&t--still, you fall under the Fixed Income umbrella, not IBD. For analysts, the pay is exactly the same; for associates, it's a bit less than IBD, but still excellent, and the hours are much better.
You do end up doing much narrower work than in IBD--eg, CDO's all day every day, etc. However, in IBD you mostly do plain vanilla stuff, whereas if you want to work on more innovative, complex products, structured finance is a great place.
What about ECMs? How is it different than IB?
is it easy to move from ECM to IB?
csfb is pretty good in LevFin...but for dcm GS
ecm sits within the IBD and is a product group. you mainly do capital raisings in the equities market (ipos and secondary offerings). people say its a cross between banking and trading insofar as they "straddle the wall". the advice i've been given is that its easier to go into ECM from traditional IBD (M&A or industry groups) than vice versa.
on DCM... i thought DB is pretty good in DCM as well?
deutsche and BofA for structured finance. maybe Barclays too.
structured finance people make GOOD money.
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