Esoteric ABS or Commercial Banking

I'm a 1st year analyst at a Big 3 Rating Agency focusing on ABS. At some point, I'll be moving out of NYC to my wifes state of RI and wanted to see what would make sense as a career move. I feel that I can make substantially more if I move firms into a capital markets role but like that the hours aren't too bad here.

Commercial banking sounds interesting with the work life balance as well as a capital markets role at a specialty finance firm when the time comes. How do I bolster my chances of doing so, as being at a rating agency tasks is similar in ways to IB with modeling, building committee memos, talking with investors and clients.

Thank you

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ABS is certainly more interesting; although, i’m biased since i’m in esoteric ABS.

i started at s&p and i can tell you from my experience that it’s not easy to jump into the banking side of ABS - especially origination. ABS structuring (building models and managing rating agency process) group is relatively easier but you could get pigeoned holed there. Most roles are in NYC so consider that when you move.

i see Mizuho currently looking for someone on their ABS structuring team if youre interested. Not sure if it’s for esoteric but check it out on LinkedIn. goodluck

 

Thank you. The benefit as you would know with being at a rating agency is the large deal flow and responsibility as an analyst. What are some options out of a rating agency? Is corporate development or capital markets focused a role that can be attained? I enjoy ABS but do feel that it can be pigeonholing individuals at a certain point in their career?

 

From what I’ve seen, you’ll mostly exit from abs to the issuers you were working with(we were also working with a small business credit card and an analyst went to go work for them so certain startups are also an option) or there are some abs consulting firms that are doing some pretty cool stuff that you could probably eventually work for. (FatBurger just issued a whole business securitization that was issued using etherium with a securitization consulting startup) As for exits from ratings, I worked at a smaller ratings shop(not top 3) and we had guys go to traditional IB, quant research roles, abs banking(like myself) and a bunch of other stuff. It’s important though to start trying to make an out now or you will get pigeonholed into the ratings agency from what I’ve seen.

 

Yeah fat burger was a small deal done (about 40mm). Does a move into the business development or investor relations side make sense if you want to make a move to a PE sourcing role for abs? Is that too far reach? Thanks

 

yeah I just think it was an interesting deal. And in my opinion I don’t think it’s impossible to make that jump but I’m just one random guy on the internet. I abide by the cream will always rise to the top type of the mentality so if you do good work and show that you can be a valuable asset any jump is really possible. Will it be more difficult than the traditional IB -> PE? Yeah probably since abs modeling is in my experience not very related to IB and PE modeling(although whole business might be more so) but I think the mentality on this forum is very narrow and there are many other ways to get to where you want to go than a majority of people on this website would have you believe.

 

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