Citi Bank Public Finance

Public Finance isn't IBD tho

1. Public Finance is under Investment Banking, It's just that you deal with state/local governments mostly instead of corporations unless you're doing a P3 Deal. Citi has the best public finance group, I have friends in there that love it.
2. Pay is the same level as other groups but bonuses tend to be lower because the banking fees are lower because pitching is very competitive.
3. For interviews they want to know that you have a general interest in public finance and know what it is. Be sure to know bond math, treasury yield, recent deals, etc.

Why aren't they happy?

interested as well

Bump.

Anyone with any insight on this gig?

Citi PFD is currently in process of selecting Summer Analysts.

Summer Analysts hours are the same as general analyst.

Summer job entails research, assisting in presentations creations and modeling (limited).

Is pub fin like government stuff or equity capital markets? you know peter orszag works at citi

Unless your in the HC group you won't have a lot of transferable skills into regular Ibanking and even then its not easy switching into Ibanking. Not saying its impossible but very hard switching over.

Not impossible. I've seen someone do it - 2 years PubFin and then switch as a 3rd year analyst into an IB group.

I worked in pub fin IB this summer. As mentioned above, there are few transferable skills between PF and Corp Fin IB. However, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get into traditional IB with enough networking after your two year stint. There's a chance that you might have to start at the bottom as a first year analyst but if you want to get into HF/AM it might be worth your time.

As for exit opps, they're limited. You might be able to exit to a fund that trades munis, or an infrastructure PE fund if you're working in the P3 group and work a lot with private investors interested in privatizations. Additionally, a lot of people seem to exit into politics since you're working with a lot of municipalities. Or into education or something like that. For example, one of my dad's friends left his MD position to become CFO of one of the largest public university systems in the nation (think UC/UT/SUNY/UNC systems).

Pay is similar, though I'd imagine bonuses might be slightly lower. I know my SA pay was the same as my friends doing corp fin IB, but I was paid hourly, and I worked less hours than them so they made more. 1st year analyst pay is the same though. Progression is the same.

Culture was laid back, everyone was super nice. I went out for drinks with the analyst/associate/VP a few times. Also grabbed lunch with the whole office once too. Hours were about 8am to 10-12pm most nights, a few weekends, and I'd leave around 5pm on Fridays. We had TVs in the office, and as soon as the MD went home (who happened to be the group head) we'd turn on whatever sports were on (watched a lot of hockey).

Interview questions were almost entirely fit. Nobody really knows anything about public finance except for the people that work in it, so they don't expect you know much. I would know general market trends, know the difference between revenue and GO bonds, what happens to price when yield goes up/down, and be able to talk through some of the trends in the muni market right now (e.g. Detroit bankruptcy). Look at bondbuyer.com for whatever region you're interviewing. Pretty sure you can get a free two week trial with a .edu email address.

Another important question is "why pub fin? what's your interest?" Usually they just want to know what interests you about it. I talked about my interest in a public policy course I took and how pub fin was the perfect blend of that and my interest in the markets.

Hope this makes sense, I'm typing from a phone so I can't guarantee there aren't any errors. Let me know if you have any other questions and I can most likely help!