2024 Updated UK/London Investment Banking Rankings
Hi All,
Hope you are well!
Please find below the updated rankings of London investment banks by prestige. Please not some of these are relative, and margins can often be extremely slim (like between ranks 19 and 26). Do let me know if you have any comments, and I'll make the relevant updates!
1. GS
2. MS
3. JPM
4. Lazard
5. BAML
6. Evercore
7. Roths
8. Citi
9. PJT
10. PWP
11. CVP
12. Barclays
13. UBS
14. DB
15. Houlihan
16. Moelis
17. RBC
18. Jefferies
19. BNPP
20. Macquarie
21. Santander
22. HSBC
23. Greenhill
24. Nomura
25. Blair
26. SocGen
27. MUFG
28. Mizuho
29. Cantor
30. Guggenheim (?)
31. Standard Chartered
32. Baird
33. Berenberg
34. RBS/Natwest
35. ING
36. Stifel
37. Wells
38. TD Securities
39. Unicredit
40. BMO
41. Numis
42. BBVA
43. Mediobanca
44. Natixis
45. Scotia
46. Peel Hunt
47. CIBC
48. CACIB
49. SMBC
50. Lincoln
51. Commerzbank
52. Alantra
53. Deloitte
54. PwC
55. EY
56. KPMG
Kind Regards,
An analyst trying to rile up a bunch of incoming interns at low ranked banks
haha prospect PJT should not be this high. Their mediocre m&a franchise would demote them to just about 1 spot above roths but still below evr.
Inaccurate and congrats on the Evercore analyst stint
kid I hope you understand that everyone on this site can tell you’re an incoming pjt intern. You can take these hypothetical wso lists for what you want but you cannot be a top 5 investment bank, when your average analyst is doing at most 2 m&a deals a year and your firm can’t even break into the top 15 of European league tables. In the real world, European professionals know pjt is not top 5 in Europe. Their rx franchise is great but not great enough to offset their Subpar European m&a deal flow. You objectively can’t be a top 5 bank with mediocre m&a, otherwise a bank like HL would be in the top 10 haha.
Are you really comparing PJT to Houlihan? Lol also definitely would not consider PJT M&A to be 'mediocre' - it is significantly ahead of PWP/Barclays etc. for M&A and add on no.1 RX team and youve got an overall 4-6 ranged bank
Okay Prospect/intern (I am fairly certain prospect is the same as the incoming pjt intern), I'll bite. Time to teach you a quick lesson about the uk m&a market.
My brother in christ, I was even doing them a favour by calling their uk m&a practice mediocre. It actually is just below average. They placed like 14th/15th in the uk and wider EMEA market if I remember correctly so by using your (illogical btw) maths this would average out to an 7-8 ranking taking into account their rx practice.
Oh to be a naive little undergrad again, how I miss those days. This is not quite how it works when calculating the 'prestige' of a bank. While I do agree that m&a and rx (and perhaps ecm) are the truest forms of investment banking, it would be ridiculous to put an equal weight on rx when 75% of others in this list can't even participate in the rx market. Its like comparing apples to oranges, your large banks can't do rx so it would be extremely unfair to say they should take up 50% of the weight put into calculating their reputation. I would put a 25% weight on it at most and thats being generous considering the m&a market is 100x the size of the rx market.
This is an incredibly bad take and I suggest you actually talk to your pjt buddy to find out why. I myself will keep it brief. Their UK deal flow isn't higher than pwp's (though they do larger deals) and is not even close to Barclays. Barclays will never fall out of the top 10 of a uk ranking, they are THE legacy UK BB. In fact, I saw on lseg recently they came first in the uk m&a market which honestly isn't even a surprise. PJT has quite literally never even broke into the top 10 of an emea or uk ranking. Here's a little infographic I came across the other day to illustrate this:
Notice how PJT is not even to be seen in that list?
Look PJT is a fantastic place to work, but at the moment they are still a 'niche' rx bank in the UK and niche banks simply can't be placed into the top 5 and arguably not even the top 10. However, their rx practice is respected enough to be somewhere in the top 10. I wouldn't put them above BAML,LAZ,EVR or even BAR and neither would most other professionals. I have 5+ years of experience in the industry, so most would trust my opinion over a prospects.
JPM could take over the n1 spot in Europe by the end of 2024. The GS n1 spot has never felt more contested than now.
Good list overall but DB > UBS
Curious to know why there's a question mark next to Guggenheim. Wasn't that the former Greenhill TMT team? What are they worth now?
Because they’re pretty much just a TMT boutique leveraging off US rep at the moment
Why is barclays so low? Thought they were top dog in the London
Should be above CVP and PWP here. The US BBs are still better in London, though.
Barclays should be above every EB except for Laz, Roth, and CVP. PJT is just not that strong in London (just as Roth is not that strong in the US)
No bias here but not a good take tbh. Would still keep PJT, Laz, and EVR above BAR purely for exits. If not in a cracked group like p&u, your exits aren't fantastic. Roths too maybe but cvp should definitely be below Barclays. CVP's uk practice is still average and it seems like most prospects on this site hype it up for its weirdly exclusive recruitment process.
There’s a reason this post has so much ms.
Congrats on PJT!
Greenhill is under Mizuho. How are you comparing them separately?
They are seperate entities with separate activities. Mizuho is only doing capital markets and financing work…
Is this a ranking about the UK coverage of these banks or what's the London office in terms of reputation/deal flow?
Because comments above are confusing
Congrats on PJT!
What’s it with all the PJT glazing over the last six months on this site? This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it rank at least 6 places higher than the actual European rankings. Can we collectively call this bullshit out more often…oh and congrats on PJT.
Genuinely hilarious that OP (Incoming pjt intern) can see all the pushback with pjt being top 5 and isn't budging but is still trying to convince us he's an unbiased analyst
Arma? Raine? Qatalyst?
Also, beyond top 5-10 this list is meaningless - it then depends on industry/sector strength. Truly hope no prospect is making decisions based on this list.
Where is FT partners?
It’s nowhere as it should be
PJT updated down to 9th
Still above Citi and Roths imo, push it to 7th
It’s not above Citi & Roth.
PJT below RTH, LAZ, EVR, and Citi looks so wrong. Easily one of the most sought after positions in London due to Generalist Analyst programme. PJT London feels like a cheat code into most prestigious RSSG team out there... In NY undergrads throw any offer over board for PJT RSSG and even M&A is top notch.
Lol I stg people will find a way to shit on every ranking🤣
When does SMBC's 2025 London internship open and/or close?
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