Best Regional Banks in Chicago

Hi all! What are the biggest/strongest/most well known regional banks in Chicago? I have heard a lot about the MM banks but wanted some insight on the BB and EBs that have offices there. Thanks!

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Citi has the largest presence in Chicago. Barclays analysts are generalists across tmt, sponsors, and industrials. Cs has a presence but I think it’s mostly nd kids as far as analysts go. MS has no analysts. Jpm has a diversified industrials group that iirc focuses on automotive. As far as eb’s goes, greenhill has an office there and analysts have placed very well historically. Moelis and Lazard also have offices. I’m sure there’s a lot I’m missing but this is a start

 
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BBs

  • Citi is the strongest in Chicago, large presence
  • CS / BAML / JPM also quite strong, good presence across industrials, paper/packaging
  • Barclays does a lot of sponsors work out of Chicago (head of sponsors sits in Chicago) and covers non-traditional sectors (business services, some tech, and ed-tech as well).
  • MS and GS have significantly downsized the local presence, do most of the execution out of NY now
  • Not familiar with DB/UBS Chicago offices

EBs

  • Centerview / PJT - not really present.  Centerview hired Rahm Emanual but no real office in Chicago
  • Evercore - newer presence, small team of 10-15 people, don't know much about them
  • Greenhill - one of the stronger boutiques in Chicago, 5 MDs in the office, pure industrials work but one of the best teams at the firm
  • Moelis - cover some FIG, some consumer, some real estate -- good office, more laid back culture compared to other Moelis offices
  • Lazard - M&A has very little presence, mainly LMM, and large-cap they keep changing the strategy.  Restructuring is strong, with the head of restructuring sitting out of Chicago and nearly 30-40% of the group Chicago based
 

At the jr level it is more like 50/50 for Lazard RX across NY and Chicago. Same number of analysts and associates, actually more analysts in Chicago right now. Really strong group 

 

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