Hot take: I’d rather be at Desjardins than UBS for investment banking in 2026
At least when Desjardins wins a mandate, everyone notices. They are higher than UBS in the LSEG league tables.
UBS keeps telling us the “pipeline is incredible,” “the integration is almost done,” and “next year will be transformational” while somehow sliding down the league tables.
Desjardins knows exactly what it is. UBS keeps giving TED Talks about what it’s about to become.
Sometimes being a regional bank with realistic expectations beats being a global bank powered by PowerPoint.
League tables don’t care about legacy, wealth management AUM, or internal town halls… they care about real deals.
UBS is like being in a doctors waiting room, except you’ll never get called and you’ll never close a deal
This is honestly a wonderful analogy that applies to more banks than we’re willing to admit
Life is pretty stress free at Desjardins ngl, can live a normal life
what are hours like?
Desjardins is the next Jeffries, some great people there
My summer roommate works there and absolutely hates it, says they just practice modeling tests all day because there aren’t real deals to work on
We really only hire those that finish the modeling test the fastest. We like to see that they know all the shortcuts
Who tf works at desjardins
It’s Canadian:
Americas M&A League Table Q2 UPDATED
1. Goldman Sachs & Co $667,079mm 114 deals
2. JP Morgan $384,284mm 116 deals
3. Morgan Stanley $322,075mm 89 deals
4. Wells Fargo & Co $240,944mm 28 deals
5. BofA Securities Inc $219,646mm 55 deals
6. Centerview Partners LLC $195,715mm 47 deals
7. Lazard $156,136mm 55 deals
8. Citi $122,067mm 49 deals
9. Evercore Inc $113,507mm 72 deals
10. TD Securities Inc $110,761mm 43 deals
11. Jefferies LLC $72,043mm 84 deals
12. RBC Capital Markets $71,636mm 36 deals
13. Barclays $58,663mm 40 deals
14. Moelis & Co $39,865mm 68 deals
15. PJT Partners Inc $38,699mm 29 deals
16. Qatalyst Partners $35,323mm 5 deals
17. BMO Capital Markets $23,953mm 38 deals
18. Allen & Co Inc $22,405mm 1 deal
19. Piper Sandler & Co $20,788mm 75 deals
20. Perella Weinberg Partners LP $20,759mm 23 deals
21. Santander Corp & Invest Bkg $19,882mm 15 deals
22. Guggenheim Securities LLC $19,770mm 25 deals
23. Rothschild & Co $19,146mm 27 deals
24. National Bank of Canada Fin'l $19,021mm 11 deals
25. Scotiabank $16,827mm 18 deals
26. Eastdil Secured LLC $16,722mm 3 deals
27. CIBC World Markets Inc $14,630mm 11 deals
28. Desjardins Capital Markets $13,788mm 4 deals
29. Robert W Baird & Co Inc $13,110mm 43 deals
30. Leerink Partners LLC $11,432mm 9 deals
31. UBS $11,147mm 20 deals
Looks about 20% better than UBS
Is Barcap also sliding down?
Perception-wise they are middle bulge, but fee-wise they are further down
its the opposite for fees, the table above is deal credit
There doing better after shipping their worst bankers to UBS
UBS working on a lot of subscale deals if their average deal size is around $500mm.
Desjardins average deal size >$1bn…
Full Scale Headcount. Sub scale Results.
UBS - Banking was our Craft!
If you work out of the Montreal office, it is probably like working at a BB given how absurdly nepotistic the Quebec government is.
I don’t think La Caisse or any of those guys are allowed to tie their shoes without bringing on every provincial advisor they can
Functionally speaking, what is the leading cause of UBS's downfall? Are the shitty Barclays MDs the main reason?
That’s the biggest factor for sure. Drove it into the ground while filling their pockets
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