First Citizens Leveraged Finance Capital Markets?

Could anyone provide some color on WLB, total comp, and exit opps for the First Citizens Capital Markets Analyst program? For context, this is the legacy CIT capital markets team that was acquired by First Citizens. They do syndications in the middle market and start 1st year analysts off as generalists before branching them off into their coverage groups (Healthcare, TMT, Energy, etc.). The work seems very similar to sell-side leveraged finance investment banking teams at more reputable banks. However, the bank's name is not very strong, and the role is branded as "capital markets" not "investment banking". How would a seat like this compare to a Corporate Banking seat at a bigger bank (think TD, Truist, PNC) in terms of exit opps? Would buy-side/BB IB see this as more of a commercial banking role?

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Thanks for the input. Not sure if you were referring to Citizens or First Citizens. I was referring to First Citizens, which is a similarly sized balance sheet bank.

 
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The role is going to be more focused on selling deals underwritten by the industry specialists to other banks, especially smaller retails ones. Whereas DCM at a BB might focus more on leveraged loans (higher risk) and bonds (larger), this will likely be more focused on on the TLA/bank debt market (lower risk/smaller).

I will say that First Citizens does punch above its weight in certain industry verticals including energy, healthcare, and TMT. If you can get into one of those verticals I would imagine the exit opps would be pretty decent, although I wouldn't expect to be able to go into PE from any DCM role.

 

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