Commercial Banking at a Canadian Big5 or Boutique IB?
Hey all,
I'm a final year undergrad student in Canada currently going through FT recruitment. My main goal has been to work in Corporate Banking. I'm interested in the work and I like the fact that it seems like a job where more people stay in it for their careers. However the fact that people dont leave Corporate Banking basically means that there arent many positions available currently in Canada.
I'm wondering which of the following 2 options would give me the best chance of breaking into Corporate Banking after a year or 2:
1) Commercial Banking at a Canadian Big 5
2) Investment Banking at a regional boutique
Thanks in advance!
Commercial to Corporate Banking is possible so I would choose the first option.
Thanks for the reply. Do you think that going from boutique IB to big5 CorpBanking is less likely?
absolutely the first choice. The first thing corporate bankers look for is credit experience, and you'll gain very little of that with boutique IB because they do very little financing.
Thanks! I was kinda under the assumption that because at big banks, Corporate Banking teams work under the same umbrella and very closely with the Investment banking teams, which might be seen as preferable. I do see the point though that commercial and corporate are much closer in terms of actual work.
Keep in mind that corporate banking is leveraging the bank's own balance sheet. It is actually a negative margin business in most cases, after you consider cost of funds, capital that must be set aside for reserves (earning a very low rate of return), and the SG&A associated with pretty high levels of salaries. Corporate banking is used to build goodwill and hopefully lead to advisory assignments. Boutiques do not have a balance sheet and are generally pure advisory shops - they may reach out on behalf of a client to secure unitranche or similar credit facilities for smaller clients but that's not the same as corporate banking at a large bank who have to do the credit analysis and write up memos. Commercial banking does the same thing as corporate banking, except the clients are smaller and there's less cross-selling of advisory but you'll pick up all the skills needed. Also, don't underestimate the fact they use a lot of the same systems as the corporate banker (MRA to spread statements, capIQ etc), a lateral transfer from the commercial bank is much more likely to drop in to the corporate banking team and hit the ground running.
That makes alot of sense, thanks!
What's the difference between commercial and corporate banking?
From my understanding mostly client and deal size.
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