BAML US vs Europe
Hi,
recently I was gathering some information about BAML and reading around this forum you get the impression that baml is at the bottom of the BBs reputation-wise (only ahead of UBS). For me as a European, this was quite surprising as I and many people I know (including university mates as well as bankers from reputable shops) always had a relatively high opinion of BAML and I know many guys who took them over all other non-tier 1 BBs and Elite-Boutiques (in Europe, shops like Lazard don't have the reputation they have in the US). In my subjective "prestige ranking" (I know the term is awful) they were kind of tier 1.5 with GS/MS/JPM being tier 1 and therefore its standing here in the forum was a bit strange for me.
My question: What are potential explanations for that observation? My guess: In the US BAML is primarily seen as BofA, while in London they are completely legacy ML (all BAML bankers I know still refer to themselves as Merrill, even if they joined after the merger).
Would be interesting to hear your opinion on that.
