Closest thing to structured finance desk - loans capital markets?

I was wondering a bit about what a good alternative to a structured finance/securitization desk would be? I interned in securitization over the summer but didn't get the return offer, instead got an offer for another internship in Capital Markets at the same bank. I mostly worked on private warehouse financings, no public securitizations (public market was dead as we all know). I actually did enjoy reading through all of the legal documents and the skills I learned from that - the redline documents, covenants, etc. A deal that I spent most of my time on as well was a revolver loans facility (origination of mortgages/RMBS). I wasn't spectacular at the modelling side of the job and feedback that I got was that whilst I was very strong throughout the internship, the team required very technically adept people, so the reason for no return (but strong performance yielded the return internship instead). I could do dynamic stratification tables using formulae but Python, vintage default curves, and cashflow modelling I wasn't 100% on.

Would loans capital markets/loans and acquisition finance be a good fit for me? I'm also considering DCM, but I enjoyed the slightly "slower" pace of securitization and delving deep into depth into the client. Does anyone have any light into the type of work that is done in these groups?

Thanks!

12 Comments
 
Most Helpful

As someone who has been in securitization their whole career, this is wrong. Many banks have securitization teams. Unfortunately, securitization is still unpopular, so learning in this field is trial by fire.

Just curious, which bank did you not get the return at? I want to reassure you that there is nothing wrong with you and that your group has some really unrealistic expectations. To expect an intern to do cash-flow modeling by the end of the summer is insane. Vintage curve analysis is a huge stretch too. Both cash-flow modeling and vintage curve analysis require great excel skills and creativity. Cash-flow modeling requires being able to translate legal docs to excel formulas, and this can get extremely complicated. Strats on the other hand are just pivot tables and are less complicated. 

If you like structured finance, I strongly recommend that you apply to other banks. If you tell any structured finance professional what you wrote in your story, they'll think your group is nuts. To answer your question, LCM is nothing like structured finance. LCM is about selling loans to the market. No structuring is involved. 

 

Spent time at a loans capital markets desk when I was an intern. Other people may know more than me, but since no one else has chimed in I'll give my thoughts.

Loans capital markets is pretty sweet from a WLB perspective. It is indeed rather legal heavy, with a lot of time spent with lawyers going back and forth on the loan agreement and termsheet. You pretty much won't be doing any modeling at all, and the role is pretty process orientated. This means that the bankers will be responsible for producing most of the materials (CIM, model), but loans capital markets will track prospective buyers of the debt, process diligence questions, handle documentation etc. You'll also be keeping track of the loan market via comps to provide the origination bankers with insight into what the market can handle in terms of loan pricing/structure/size. 

For investment grade loans, you'd mainly be syndicating TLAs for general corporate purposes to other banks. Leveraged/acquisition facilities would be slightly more complex and you'd be selling TLBs to private credit funds, but most of the heavy lifting and analysis will be done by the LevFin originations team (I assume by "loans and acquisition finance" you are referring to the capital markets team that helps syndicate acquisition facilities; if you are thinking of the originations team plenty of info about LevFin on this site elsewhere). 

If you want to try something less technical, enjoy facing the market, and prefer a "slower" pace loans capital markets may be for you. However, exit opps are somewhat limited, if that is something you care about.

 

I suppose also a good question might be what the difference is between corporate banking and loan capital markets? Looks like (to my untrained eye) they do very similar stuff?

 

Et quidem exercitationem id dignissimos. Qui unde praesentium rerum exercitationem deserunt dolorem. Aperiam autem quasi aut. Qui velit id voluptas aut temporibus. Illo commodi porro aut in repellat aliquid.

Dolorem dolores et doloribus asperiores natus enim. Eaque vel quo error dolor adipisci blanditiis ad. Rerum sed fugit et molestiae.

Ea tempore ut et et porro doloribus et. Architecto quis facilis blanditiis dolorem. Neque architecto velit rerum id itaque. Qui aspernatur asperiores molestiae ipsa commodi. Illo dolorem quaerat at labore tempora enim. Qui molestiae sed itaque tempore qui ab.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (46) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”