FIG at a BB London?

As a FIG banker in London, I believe this advice is highly misguided.

On the poor reputation of FIG, I believe there are 3 main reasons, where some are more valid than others:

1) FIG is boring - Coming from a degree where a very high % pursued IB careers, many people dreaded the prospect of landing in a FIG group for their intern placement. Understandably, banks/insurance/consumer finance are not the sexiest to many people, and the fact that the financial statements and valuation methods are quite different also makes it perceived to be quite difficult work. I can completely understand students' apprehension, but if you have an interest in FIG (e.g. because they are some of the most fundamental players of our capitalist system), you'll have a fun time in a FIG group. I personally like the challenge of more complex accounting and modeling, but this is also depends on your person.

2) FIG has poor exit opps - This is one of the most contentious points, and I believe the advice given here on WSO is often misguided or flat-out wrong. Maybe it is different in NYC where recruiting for PE is more structured than London, but i see PLENTY of people exiting FIG IBD to do PE. Recently, someone in my group (top BB) exited to Advent/CVC/Warburg Pincus level PE fund, my friend in another BB FIG team exited to similar level etc. And there are good reasons for it!

First, FIG requires quite intensive modeling, which as someone already has noted, leads FIG analysts to often crush the modeling tests. Now you say, "well you can't do an LBO of a bank/insurance company", and that is basically true. However, you will certainly in your time in a general FIG group be exposed to LBO models, as certain consumer finance and FinTech companies (which will often be dealt with by FIG bankers) are good LBO candidates.

Second, it is flat out untrue that few PE deals are made in the FIG/Fintech space. Yes, banks and insurance are rarer for non-specialised FIG PE-firms, but let me remind you of the biggest euro (global?) LBO of 2017, Hellman Friedmann taking over Danish payment provider Nets. Other notables last year include Nordic Capital backed Lindorff merging with Intrum Justitia, HF and GIC taking over Allfunds bank, BC Partners taking Shawbrook private (again!) and Cerberus taking over struggling HSH Nordbank. Indeed, many PE funds even state that financial services are one of the core industries in their investment strategy, and e.g. Apollo, CVC, HF, Bain and Advent have dedicated financial services teams.

So while it is true that sometimes recruiters (who don’t necessarily have the finger on the pulse) will market you exclusively as a FIG prospect, funds will also hire you for general investing in Europe.

3) FIG is hard work – Can only say that this is TRUE. FIG is the industry team that brings in the most revenue for virtually any bank on the street, which isn’t surprising given the high # of capital raisings that banks/insurance undertake. While the FIG group will therefore often have the most people, I’d say that the average hours in FIG are definitely some of the worst when looking at coverage teams.

Hopefully this gives you some clarity on the pros/cons of FIG, but do of course take it with a grain of salt, as I am necessarily a bit biased as a FIG banker myself. As for the FIG BB vs. other team in lower BB, I think you can only make that choice yourself. But to directly address the points about banks above:

GS FIG is DEFINITELY not the only team placing well – the “legendary” group really isn’t as legendary in London, and I personally know 2 people who turned down an offer there to elsewhere, as they really didn’t like the culture (some geographic teams have absolute sadistic slavedrivers at VP-level). I don’t see GS FIG on an outsized number of deals or PE exits, but of course they are a very good team (albeit not as legendary as random sophomores that parrot what they’ve read on WSO make them out to be – at least in London). Additionally, I wanna say that UBS aren’t as bad as people on WSO make them out to be, indeed their FIG team is one of the stronger in London (e.g. on Coop Bank restructuring, buy-side advisory on Ingenico/Bambora).

Sorry this got a little long, but hopefully other potentially FIG bankers can use this information down the line as well. Couldn’t resist countering what I believe is misguided advice above, it just repeats all the drivel you see on WSO.