Goldman no longer #1?.....

Institutional Investor’s inaugural survey of America’s Best Investment Banks ranks the top <span class='keyword_link'><a href="/resources/skills/deals/merger" target="_blank">underwriters and merger</a></span> advisers based on the opinions of their clients. The polling took place from late January through mid-July. More than 350 CEOs, CFOs and other senior corporate executives, as well as professionals at <span class="keyword_link"><a href="//www.wallstreetoasis.com/finance-dictionary/private-equity-overview">private equity</a></span> firms, responded to our survey.

They were ranked by CEO's. The CEO's were asked to value the advice and overall quality of advisory and product work....below is description:

We asked clients to express their opinions about which banks provide the most outstanding overall service, as well as which performed best in a number of product categories, such as IPOs, high-yield bonds and M&A advice, during the previous 12 months. We also asked them to tell us the attributes they value most in investment banks and individual bankers.

The rankings were arrived at by assigning firms scores in each category, with votes weighted according to place — first-place votes in a given category were worth more than second-place votes, and so on. The results for each category were tabulated and are presented separately; the Best Overall rankings, in other words, are not an aggregation of the product rankings.

The ranking was compiled by Associate Editor Carolynn B. Tetro, under the guidance of <span class='keyword_link'><a href="/resources/careers/jobs/managing-director-md">Director of Research</a></span> Sathya Rajavelu, Assistant Managing Editor Justin Schack and Senior Editor Jane B. Kenney.