Thoughts on Scotiabank
Hey all,
Looking for some info on what Scotiabank is like in terms of culture/pay?- there is very little on WSO.
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I got ice on my chain's like nova scotia BRRRRRR
I don't know anything about them except that they pay $90k base.
From what I can tell / have seen, it isn’t a bad place to cover energy / power / infrastructure. That’s been my only exposure to that team. If it’s your only current option, I’d take the job and lateral in a year (assuming we don’t hit a recession).
Thank you for this- I'm very much looking to cover energy/infra so will strongly consider.
Talked to someone in their nyc P&U group and heard there was high turnover. Couldn't get a read on culture but I didn't really connect with them like I did with people at other banks. It could've just been a difference in personalities though idk.
Senior Associate in one of the Canadian Banks here.
There is a lot of misconception floating around the Canadian Banks on this forum. Some dated threads / info, which has not been refreshed to reflect current views.
In general, all of the big CAD banks (TD, RBC, BMO, Scotia, CIBC) are highly regarded in context of Canada. As long as you're good, you will have a "shot" at most PE, corp dev, asset management positions in Toronto (exception of Onex and Altas). The exception may be National, which is considered a tier below the rest, but it is still good for purposes of working in Canada.
Of the remaining, RBC and TD are often ranked as above the rest. This is a function of deal flow (M&A, financing), culture (i.e., TD consistently known to have one of the best cultures), and exit opportunities.
In terms of Scotia, contrary to some of the old threads here, they are highly active in the Canadian M&A activity. Just last year, they finished 2nd in Canadian M&A league tables (http://graphics.wsj.com/investment-banking-scorecard/). It looks like 2019 was not a great year for them, however in 2018 they also ranked top 2. I think the reason Scotia tends to not get much pull in conversations is because this is a USA-heavy forum. In terms of US M&A activity, Scotia does very little compared to RBC/BMO/TD. Based on a quick Linkedin search, exit opportunities to PE look pretty good as well (seeing Brookfield PE, OTPP, CPPIB, and mid-market shops).
what about TD in u.s?
Best groups are debt related (DCM / LevFin) and P&U is their best coverage group.
Hey, thanks this was what I was looking for! I think you are right with this being a mostly US forum and Scotia having very little activity there. I'm based in London and reached out to a friend who worked with many Scotiabankers on energy/infra M&A and said they were a really solid shop- he also mentioned that the hours were seemingly quite good for the comp offered! I'd quite like to move to Canada one day, do you have any idea what the general attitude is for allowing foreign employees to move to Canadian offices? Cheers for the input :)
I'd be wary about the hours being "good". Any shop with good deal flow and M&A will have long hours.
I'm not too sure about transferring offices - I'd imagine there would be some sort of work visa option if you've worked in a European satellite of a Canadian bank
Thanks for this. Any insight into top/bottom groups at RBC and TD?
The wsj ranking is not very good though.
Per bloomberg, CY2020 Canadian banks M&A ranking: 1.RBC 2.TD 3.CIBC 4. NBF 5. Scotia 6.BMO, but yes, scotia is pretty strong in p&u n stuff
I'll add some info on Scotiabank in the US if that was what you were interested in. The Investment Banking Division is comprised of 6 industry teams and 2 product teams broken down as follows:
Industry Teams
Product Teams
The strongest industry teams are Power & Utilities and Energy, but the experience is very, very sweaty. The Real Estate team also does well, though mainly capital markets deals, and was started up by ex-UBS guys I believe. FIG team does nothing and the Technology team was recently built so not much there. DCM team does very well, mostly vanilla IG deals. Only really joint book-runners on highly rated utility deals, little activity in the HY space, and if there is any it's usually co-manager roles. ECM team not as strong as DCM, mostly co-manager roles.
Compensation at the junior level is strong. They pay above street compared to BBs and pretty much in-line with EBs at the analyst level. This is the only way they can attract talented candidates away from BBs/EBs. Starting salary is $90k and the bonus is in the 80%-100% range. Pretty much every first-year gets a minimum of $75k bonus (full-year not stub) and know some who have gotten $90k (total comp $180k). However, as soon as you become more senior (VP level and honestly probably even earlier at Associate level) the pay starts to fall behind compared to the street.
All in all, not a bad place to work at the junior level. The Energy and Power teams are active in the M&A space and do have decent exits. Be warned that teams are lean and the experience can be very sweaty. Otherwise, good comp and can use Scotiabank as a platform to lateral.
At a target for the energy team so can also add some insight into that. Honestly, the energy team has been suffering a bit. They had big layoffs in 2020 which included letting go of at least 3-4 MDs in the energy team. They also rescinded the offers they gave to incoming associates just before they started and also had a low FT rate (only 1 person from my school got a return when usually all of them would). They are really good at A&D but that has been suffering a lot and I think it is a classic case of putting all your eggs in one basket. Scotia in Houston doesn't have nearly as much deal flow in other sectors to balance this. for SA 2021 Houston had a very weird process. They interviewed us for the first rounds in April/March or something and then I heard back from them in October after I had already accepted another offer at a top bank. The people personally seemed really nice but overall the group seemed a bit disorganized to me.
Would be interested in knowing more about the FIG team, though. Would appreciate it If you could add more info on that.
The FIG team went through layoffs around the same time as the Houston team did as you mentioned. The team was very small and did nothing before the layoffs. Not even sure if they are still a team after the layoffs and, if they are, they are incredibly small and have no deal activity. Would avoid. Assuming you don't speak Spanish (takes LatAm team off the table), your only real options are 1) Power & Utilities, 2) Real Estate, and 3) Energy. For the first, know that the team does well in the power generation M&A space but experience-wise is incredibly sweaty. For the second, you'll have a lot better experience (great group culture) but most of your work will be capital markets and less M&A. For the third, know that the team did very well but as evidenced by the layoffs they are perhaps going through a tougher time right now. Nevertheless, Energy/P&U are strong focus points of the banks (and all Canadian banks for that matter, with minings/metal being another) so the teams will continue to receive support and should continue to do well in the middle market space.
This more so reflects the broader Energy industry as a whole - a lot of the major Canadian banks, including mine, had multiple layoffs across Houston and Calgary.
Based on close friends at Scotia, can confirm that compensation at junior level in Canada was also very good
Can anyone provide any insight into the DCM group in terms of deal flow and culture in NYC? I recently chatted with someone in the group and the impression I got was a tremendous amount of pitch work and creating endless slide decks with very little execution. Any insight on culture and deal flow is appreciated.
Can anyone provide commentary on Toronto Corporate Banking at CIBC / BMO?
^also interested in Scotiabank Corp Banking too.
Good bank. Good culture and pay
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