There are 100 posts per day on here asking if XYZ is a BB now. However, the response is always no 100x over - but people never really define why except “it’s not a bulge bracket because they don’t lead IB league tables in 100 sectors!”
Leads me to think what actually is a bulge bracket, how is it defined, and what requirements does a bank have to meet in order to become one?
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Bulge bracket would usually mean the largest name in the underwriting syndicate. However this terminology has kind of fallen short, since Jefferies and WF are seen as MM but do exceptionally in ECM and DCM book running.
Transaction Value then used to be a determination, where full service banks that had a average transaction size of xyz, which then got changed because of the same MM’s that would go over them (I.E. again Jefferies, WB, and RBC in this category)
So realistically? BB is a determination of the best full service banks according to league tables that statistically put their analyst classes into higher AUM PE funds compared to the middle market full service banks.
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