How did banks like Salomon Brothers, Lehman Brothers, Drexel, Smith Barney, and Bear Sterns compare to the likes of Goldman and Morgan Stanley from the 1980s onwards? Were the other banks (now-defunct) more like bulge brackets or are they more comparable to the CVPs and PJTs of the world today? Just wondering how the dynamics have shifted, and what the best banks were in the past.
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You can actually read old posts for prestige and it really echos size, which also puts the crisis in perspective for people who weren’t old enough.
Lehman was the 4th largest investment bank, Merrill was 3rd, bear stearns was also large and Wachovia. All the firms were closer to BB’s in the sense that they had balance sheets hence why they collapsed. Part of the M&A/ exclusively advisory based shops I.e. EB’s were a reaction to the crisis and firms/ bankers realizing they didn’t want to necessarily underwrite transactions and were many times just paid for their advisory services.
So in context, it would be like 3 of Citi/BofA/JPM/DB/UBS going under.
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/goldman-sachs-…
That was a wild read. I was a dipshit in high school back then who had no idea what investment banking was, lmao.
BofA took on Merrill Lynch and Barclays took on Lehman US
I honestly think it’s pretty noticeable today too. Nowadays, a lot of the older folks at Barclays or BofA refer to the place they work for as “Barclays-Lehman” or “Merill Lynch” instead of where they actually work at
Were Barclays and Lehman equivalent or in similar tiers in terms of prestige and reputation?
Fuck those firms. The real prestige is with places like white weld, Blythe, Kuhn Loeb.
Dude Drexel, probably has some of the biggest bankers to ever walk this earth come from their alumni.
Heres a Few:
Leon Black - Founder of apollo
Richard Handler - Jefferies CEO
Michael Milken - Legendary junk bond trader
Ken Moelis - founder of Moelis
Yeh it seems like most of big shots in the distressed debt industry had something to do with Drexel
I still bleed Lehman green
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