Why don't we categorize banks differently?

Curious why the whole BB/EB/MM categories still exist when IB is much different in practice.

For BBs - UBS & DB still being there is questionable (in the US)

For EBs - we completely ignore GHL, Roths, Gugg, Ducera, just because they're not "elite" enough who cares + all industry boutiques (although you could make this a seprate category)
For MM - there are many different types of MM banks and throwing them all into 1 bucket just doesn't make sense.

Curious your guys thoughts and how banks should be categorized in the future.

7 Comments
 

I agree, I always thought a more accurate categorization would be:

Pure Investment Banks: GS and MS
Retail banks with Investment Banking offerings: JPM, Citi, Barclays, UBS, WF, RBC, BofA, BMO, TD
Elite Boutiques: Centerview, Qatalyst, PJT
Large-Cap Boutiques: EVE, Moelis, Lazard, PWP
Middle Market Boutiques: Jeff, Baird, WB, HL, HW, Rothschild

 
Most Helpful

Doesn’t make any sense.

Unlike Wells or RBC, which have 95% of their revenue coming from mortgages, auto loans and credit cards fees, JP Morgan and Citi are mostly Investment Banks with a non-core consumer banking unit on the side to diversify their business profile.

Second you can’t put Citi, Barclays, UBS or BAML in the same category as BMO, TD or Wells.

Look at PWP, most of their deals are undisclosed or below 1bn, so they definitely do not belong to “large-cap”.

You’re mixing up a lot of different things under MM, Jefferies is 1000x better than Baird or HL.

 

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