Updated May 2024 IB Tier List
The three main criteria for this ranking, which are weighted equally, include prestige, compensation, and exit opportunities. Feel free to duke it out in the comments, but this is what I have observed over this past recruiting cycle:
1. MS
2. CVP
3. GS
4. EVR
5. JPM
6. PJT
7. QATALYST
8. PWP
9. MOELIS
10. LAZARD
11. BOFA
12. GUGGENHEIM
13. HOULIHAN LOKEY
14. ALLEN & CO.
15. ROTHSCHILD
16. BARCLAYS
17. JEFFERIES
18. LIONTREE
19. STIFEL
20. GREENHILL
21. CITI
22. UBS
23. PIPER SANDLER
24. RAINE GROUP
25. WILLIAM BLAIR
This is legit
Incoming Wells comments
Newbie question - is there a reason banks like WF, BNY Mellon, PNC don’t end up on these lists, even at the bottom? Feel like i’m missing something.
I wouldn’t really group those three firms together to begin with — BNY is a custodian bank that helps its clients invest their money, PNC’s “investment banking” wing pretty much deals with the financing and capital structure side of things, (they aren’t an advisory firm, they just have a massive balance sheet), and WF has some good groups that could be considered better than groups at some of the banks listed above (I.e REGAL), but in general, management has continued to fucked their IB division over and the bank’s continued scandals has really hindered their brand name from seeing any true growth.
Problem with lists like these is they fail to distinguish groups and sector teams, offices (NY vs SF for example), relative analyst class size, and also falsely assume that the exit opportunities are homogenous.
A “lower ranked” IBD, might have a super strong group that places very well, eg HL Rx, and the reverse might be true where people would skip a “higher ranked” bank because of a poor sector group.
While this list, or any list, might be generically true, it also fails to account for the difference between how the average/median analyst places versus how the top 5 analyst place between bigger and smaller analyst classes, ie better off to be a great analyst at a smaller class than a bad/average analyst at a “prestigious” bank.
What remains true is if you’re actually at one of the good shops, which for me includes 80%+ of the list here, you’ll get a fair shake if your work hard, get on deals, and get good experience.
It all depends.
Great comments, although, whichever way you slice it, Morgan Stanley is still on top!
Great, was waiting so desperately for another fully accurate ranking since we have so few
I can’t believe some people actually spend their free time making these.
Congrats on MS
Where is credit suisse ?
Citi ubs and greenhill behind Stifel lmao
The top 17 banks or so is clearly obvious and the fact Stifel is included means this is a very unserious list. The top 20 or so banks are the now 7 posts CS-death) + the 7 or so EB's + the sector-specific elite boutiques or middle market banks(QAtalyst and Liontree for TMT, HL for RX).
Congrats on Stifel! Sorry, but Citi, Greenhill and (maybe) UBS are stronger than Stifel
Congrats on Stifel
Jefferies and Stifel better than Citi has to be among the wildest takes on even this forum which is crazy because this forum includes some GOAT's of shit posting.
Commenting on this here from my reply to someone's email about the rankings of UBS/Citi in. Just based on very basic YoY league table searching: Both are currently top 10 globally YoY for M&A revenue and Citi is currently t10 for M&A revenue in EVERY single major region(EMEA, NA, APAC) and UBS is top 10 in both EMEA and APAC but not top 10 in NA(they are still top 15, but not top 10). I am not going to argue they are top 10 firms(though I do think Citi has a very strong argument for this) because that is very subjective, but it's ridiculous to rank either of them lower than Jefferies, Rothschild, and Stifel.
Incoming retarded rising juniors who just accepted their offers losing it over an obvious troll
No, it's just there's been a lot of anti-Citi propaganda on WSO and it leads to a worse perception of the bank than the way it is in reality in terms of exits and deal flow.
Jesus Christ who gives a shit about these posts (incoming citi FT.) Let’s be honest - we have shit culture all around esp with staffers who could give a rats ass about any of the analysts
You look at a list and see Houlihan lokey on it at 10 and actually care what it says?
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