Ultimate investment bank rankings UK/ London
Because tier lists are safe and boring, and it’s fun to rile up people working 80+ hours a week by telling them they don’t work at a top 30 firm
- GS
- MS
- JPM
- PJT
- Lazard
- BAML
- Evercore
- Roths
- Citi
- PWP
- CVP
- Barclays
- UBS
- DB
- Houlihan
- Jefferies
- RBC
- BNPP
- HSBC
- Moelis
- Nomura
- Greenhill
- Macquarie
- SocGen
- Blair
- Santander
- Mizuho
- MUFG
- Guggenheim (?)
- Standard Chartered
- Berenberg
- RBS/Natwest
- ING
- Baird
- Cantor
- Stifel
- Wells
- TD Securities
- Natixis
- Unicredit
- BMO
- Numis
- BBVA
- Mediobanca
- Scotia
- Peel Hunt
- CIBC
- CACIB
- SMBC
- Lincoln
- Commerzbank
- Alantra
- Deloitte
- PwC
- EY
- KPMG
if you’re in capital markets (outside of levfin) add 15 to your number
Look forward to being accused of working at any firm I remotely overrated
Left boutiques out because they’re wildcards
Please find my comments below:
- BAML should be listed as 4
- Rothschild should be listed as 5
- Lazard should be listed as 6
- Citi should be listed as 7
Imagine you spent years at this forum and landed a position at the prestigious Moelis just to find out it's ranked lower than HSBC in Europe...
Will make changes
I don't know why, but I'm shocked BofA does well in Europe. I feel like people would avoid it just because of the name.
Uhm... what? BoA has consistently ranked top 5 in both global and European M&A league tables over the last few years. For 2022, it even ranked third in Europe after GS and JPM.
From what I'm hearing, they also have a pretty good culture in London and do not suffer from the immense cultural problems that MS / Citi has. I doubt that anyone would "avoid" BoA unless they have an offer from GS / MS / JPM but some might even choose BoA over a place like MS given the extreme cultural problems there. BoA is without a doubt one of the best places you can land at. I don't work at BoA myself though, so please correct me if I'm wrong about the culture.
EVR/CVP/PWP should be lower unless their NY offices have relocated to London? CVP France, ok.
I second this
- Intern
High time we should use BofA instead BAML. Mind correcting it
How does this even matter until everyone knows what firm you're talking about
huh CVP higher than low tier BBs when did that happen?
CVP advised on almost every single European large cap deal of the last 12M. I haven’t checked the league tables, but they should rank way ahead of lower BBs.
Confirmed by latest global league tables. Only JPM, GS, MS and BofA came out ahead. Center view ranks 4th.
KPMG analyst detected
pretty good list though Greenhill does nothing here, should be 30 at best
Just as a warning to all the interns out there basing their recruiting efforts on this list - the ranking of a bank depends on what the purpose is. Is it a ranking in terms of prestige, exit opportunities, WLB, salary, or experience gained?
For example, if you want to join a tech-focused growth equity firm after your analyst years, you would probably be better off doing TMT at Barclays than doing Natural Resources at GS. Similarly, you would probably have more prestige working at Evercore than at Deutsche Bank given the strength of Evercore in the US, but your exit opportunities from Deutsche Bank would likely be better as it's much more well-known in Europe.
I agree, Barclays is the best and have some super strong teams! (think FIG/P&U/ESG)
Congrats on Barclays P&U!
Of course some teams will always be stronger for some niches - even MUFG TMT would do better than GS NatRes if its for a TMT focused PE. But this gives a solid guideline for the general quality of exit ops you can expect
Yes, fully agree.
Wrong
Did Alantra dirty lol
Moelis this low makes 0 sense. Yes they're still finding their feet in Europe, but strong in rx at least, and growing in m&a (just announced the vodafone 3 merger). No one is ever taking rbc/bnpp/hsbc over them and they should be higher than ubs/db/jefferies too just based on the US reputation that filters across.
I think the ranking reflects its more just a poor place to work ;)
No one familiar and unbiased with the UK IB scene would suggest Moelis over any of the BBs - it is fairly placed. Great name in the US but can barely name any UK deals. All analysts work on US deals and do their grunt work. Higher up for RX, but very very poor for M&A so averages out fairly really
This is completely false… You obviously have no relevant info to contribute here
Great that they're on one big deal recently but poor track record overall - HSBC is advising on that deal as well actually lol
lol. Roths should definitely be above Laz/ PJT. No Qatalyst / Raine / Robey Warshaw
Added Baird, Qatalyst barely has a presence in the UK, no intern or graduate programme
They have both actually
Moelis way too low
You’re not from the UK, are you?
Where does DC fall?
Would say maybe mid 20s but very tough to judge with boutiques like DC, Torch which is why they’re left out
Hard to place as a whole since DC’s strength is so industry specific (infrastructure).
Hard to judge but seem to get top talent, have a strong bias towards Oxbridge. Operate in lower middle market though
9 to 7 - does that mean the jury is still out on if this is accurate?
Moelis should be 10-15. Evercore too.
your ranking is generally quite bad
You'd have a hard time naming 5 M&A deals Moelis has been on in the UK literally ever. This is a UK specific list...
It’s not UK M&A but London teams
just go on their websites and look at the quality of the seniors and deals announced. If you go to Jefferies, RBC, HSBC, BNP etc instead of moelis something is wrong with you. Could also argue for DB/UBS etc.
But you’re a prospect so not gonna lose time with you
Nomura should be a bit higher
Thoughts on Arma?
Have heard too of the street comp, but also had a friend at Stifel who said they typically pitch against them (lower middle market) so it’s pretty confusing to rate boutiques like them DC Advisory etc which is why they’re left off. Would safely say below all BB/EBs though
Solid player in tech. Exits to PE are pretty much non-existent and people are instead exiting to BBs.
Im not that familiar with the UK scene as Im from Frankfurt where its still kinda BB>the rest, so is it fair to place UBS and Barclays so low, especially UBS after the CS Merger? I get Deutsche :( but UBS? and Barclays on their home turf?
Frankfurt might have less BB presence because a lot of EB banks don’t operate there…but banks like PJT are not only solid in the UK but also pay a 25% higher base than the likes of Barclays and UBS (80k vs 65k). Would be hard to argue either is finding better talent than the strong EBs - though they do place above the weak ones
For rankings to be meaningful they need to be on a team basis
UBS and Barclays are only paying 65 base? NAHHHH that's a bad joke lmao I think they pay even more converted to euro in Frankfurt? Is that bad?
Don’t know about Europe but 100% sure about UK pay. Also Barclays pays pathetic bonuses
How would Torch Partners rank? (top 30, top 40?)
bump
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