Best Investment Banks for FIG (Financial Institutions Group)
I am interested in Financial Institutions Group for Investment Banking. I was wondering if any of y'all had any views on banks in terms of their FIG in terms of deal flows, prestige, exit opps, etc. I know in general FIG kind of pigeon holes you but relative to other banks which ones are supposed to be the best.
Goldman, KBW, Piper Sandler, Barclays, Lazard.
Citi FIG is top 3. They have recently been poaching top analysts from other BBs.
Source: Citi FIG analyst
"Poaching top analysts" LOL what the hell revenue is a "top analyst" gonna generate?
JPM FIG is top, and honestly, it's not even close.
so - having had been a GS FIG banker....I want to know...who the fuck proactively wants to go into FIG lol. you guys grew up thinking insurance companies were super cool and regional bank M&A? I get the fintech part of it but half of those groups are in the TMT vertical at banks. luckily at GS it’s within FIG but still
ok so you’re telling me your family owns a bank? like the Safras or something? otherwise I wouldn’t say your family has a background in FIG. Finance is literally anything. my dad was a TMT banker in the 80s that doesn’t connect me to FIG at all. you worked at a financial institution...like a bank. like an investment bank....like almost everyone who hustles freshman and sophomore year for internships (I know I know you can do asset management/risk crap at insurance companies and stuff). not belittling but I’m just pointing out that your connection to FIG doesn’t seem very strong (unless again, you’re a Rothschild). if you find fintech exciting then by all means try to get into that but I will tell you there’s a 70% chance you will get into FIG and won’t do fintech and instead be stuck doing bank M&A. Fintech and fintech startups have been blowing up the last 5 years, it’s a hot hot space and everyone wants a piece of it
I have a connection to FIG because I was a FIG banker. however I don’t think everyone on the buyside here who works at funds would say they are FIG people or have any connection to FIG. AM is a financial institution the way sales & trading desks are part of a financial institution - there’s no actual work with actual financial institutions operating/business models.
if you worked at an insurance company - were you in the underwriting, risk management/actuarial modeling, sales, asset-liability side, asset management side of things? if you did like fixed income investing at Prudential - that’s yes a part of an insurance companies activities but it’s not really doing “insurance stuff”
FIG is supposed to be very technical (not Fintech though) - and it is - because there’s a fuckton of accounting crap and balance sheet modeling shit you have to think about. not because it’s like super exciting in an way. also though...most of the actual technical stuff is handled by actuaries and risk modelers. you’re never tasked with figuring out AXXX reserving and asset level valuation for pools of Unsecured consumer loans and shit.
yes FIG companies are more tied to the macro than other industries for sure - so your reasons are becoming stronger for wanting to truly do FIG. keep working at it. if your dad runs a macro fund and you want to be a macro investor - FIG isn’t gonna help you out that much but it’s probably better than other groups. better in that case to just work on an S&T desk in FICC