15 Comments
 

I try not to get involved in these bank vs. bank posts, but Jefferies is far better than Scotia, in my opinion. Scotia has been in a position to take advantage of its resilience through the market downturn, and did absolutely nothing to capitalize on it. There is something to be said for Scotia's risk management, but a firm needs to realize when to pounce. Its time has passed, in my opinion.

Neither firm is bad, but I think Jefferies has momentum and ambition.

 

The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotia Capital's and Scotia Waterous' parent bank) is scaling back its investment banking operations and focusing more on its retail banking, especially in emerging markets. One of the things they're changing is compensation. I know in Calgary they paid way below street last year and paid lower end of street this year and they've lost a lot of their people as a result.

Scotia's oil & gas franchise used to be stellar but it's definitely going downhill for the reasons I just mentioned.

 

Jefferies without questions. In energy, Jefferies has a solid reputation and great deal flow. They well respected and bring in big deals. The life of a first year is BRUTAL, put if you make it through it sets you up well, especially in the energy PE space. If you want to be around a bunch of engineers and do asset deals (speaking to energy) then go to Scotia. The lifestyle at Scotia is probably better also.

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