Desks where franchise value is important

I understand that some desks, particularly in fixed income, rely a lot on franchise value. Can someone explain to me what this means and what are the examples of such desks? 
 

what’s the flipside? Is it desks that take prop risk?

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Take for example a high yield trading desk. The "franchise" desks like JP Morgan, GS, MS, etc. will generate substantial P&L from flow trading (crossing risk). This does 2 things: (i) it allows the desk to meet P&L targets without having to put too much balance sheet to work (taking risk), and (ii) it allows those banks to take risk knowing that a few trades blowing up wont blow a hole in the P&L. A desk that doesn't get much flow has to put more balance sheet to work to generate P&L. Having large dealer inventory and being able to cross risk (you are one of the go-to desks for the buy-side to work with) creates a strong flow franchise that smaller desks can't really compete with.   

 

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