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I am dutch and recently obtained an intern offer at a MM bank. Also, I have been researching a lot about how IB works here so I will try to tell you what I know.

First off, UBS has a very very small IB group, like 5 people, and they actually only recently decided to re-open their Dutch office I believe. The problems with the Benelux market is there is a limited number of big corporations doing deals above the mid market, so even though the BB's dominate the league tables, they don't do a huge amount of deals. They often don't have a focused team in Amsterdam, this is in their London office. Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan all have their Benelux team in London, while Deutsche, Barclays, Credit Suisse, UBS and BAML have an Amsterdam office. Also there are a lot of Dutch MM boutique's and a the 3 big dutch teams as well as big 4 do pretty good in the MM space. One thing I have heard about the dutch banks though is that their teams are so big and hierarchical that is doesn't provide the best learning experience for juniors. We are talking like 40 people here, while most boutiques have around 10 - 20 I believe and some of the BB's around 10 people or less.

Something else that is different here is the fact that most intern programs are longer ( 3 or 4 months +) and aimed at master's degree students so that if they like you they can keep you on board if you have already graduated and otherwise can have you start relatively soon. From browsing Linkedin I also noticed that a lot the IB folks here have a certain background at a few specific fraternities. These people also don't always have the best grades, so I am guessing networking here can also be quite important.

Please give me some more info on your background and what you want to do so I can provide some better help on where you should be looking and what you should be doing.

 

Yes, the banks I meant are ING, ABN-AMRO and Rabobank. Also to note, Lazard indeed has an Amsterdam office. Lincoln International seems to be doing quite well and a small Leonardo & Co (european boutique) has recently been acquired by Houlihan Lokey and I see them doing quite a lot of deals. Want to add though that not every bank accepts non dutch speakers, so I am not sure how your language skills are? I believe the bb's are more open to this, as well as Kempen & Co from what I hear. Hope this helps!

 

Thanx for replying!

I'm studying Tax Law at UvA and am thinking about entering the honours programme and taking part in a new project called Amsterdam Law Firm.

Where and what do you study if I may ask and how did you get that internship?

Were you actively persueing it or did it just come on your path?

How big are the IB departments of other BB's in Amsterdam and what do all the other departments do? Deutsche seems to have an impressive office in Amsterdam.

Appreciate it.

 

For sake of anonymity I won't get to specific, but I studied an economic like subject and am doing a Pre Master's to finance this year. I actively was searching for an internship and tried to visit in-house day's and business courses offered by companies. It is quite hard here though because a lot of the firms are looking for Master students or even recent graduates to intern. As far as I know, most of the BB's here have IB groups of around 10 people. What do you mean with what the other departments do? Just they classic BB stuff, like PWM, corporate banking and Asset Management, or is that not what you were looking for?

 

Hi, iloveburrtios,

Firstly, a very informative comment, thank you for that!

I'm a bit late to the party but apparently this is the only thread on whole WSO where the IB environment in Amsterdam is discussed. I am planning to make a move into the Dutch investment banking industry (I don't think I'd cut it in London), and I was wondering if you could provide a bit of an update on how you see things now (or if anything has changed) in the past 3.5 years after your initial comment.

Just a little of background on myself: I did a MSc. Finance & Investments at a Dutch top business school, then an exchange semester at a top Asian business school, then in the past 1.5 years I have been working full-time at a corporate finance boutique in my home country (think CEE region). Also, I've recently sat for the CFA Level 1 exam, not sure if that changes anything. Anyways, I am not too happy with my professional progression and I know that the more time I'm out of school, my chances of breaking into IB decrease drastically, so I would like to make a step ASAP.

Any advice would be highly appreciated!

Thanks!

 
anti-dilutive convertible bond:
Hi, iloveburrtios,

Firstly, a very informative comment, thank you for that!

I'm a bit late to the party but apparently this is the only thread on whole WSO where the IB environment in Amsterdam is discussed. I am planning to make a move into the Dutch investment banking industry (I don't think I'd cut it in London), and I was wondering if you could provide a bit of an update on how you see things now (or if anything has changed) in the past 3.5 years after your initial comment.

Just a little of background on myself: I did a MSc. Finance & Investments at a Dutch top business school, then an exchange semester at a top Asian business school, then in the past 1.5 years I have been working full-time at a corporate finance boutique in my home country (think CEE region). Also, I've recently sat for the CFA Level 1 exam, not sure if that changes anything. Anyways, I am not too happy with my professional progression and I know that the more time I'm out of school, my chances of breaking into IB decrease drastically, so I would like to make a step ASAP.

Any advice would be highly appreciated!

Thanks!

I'll PM you as I have a similar background and some experience in IBD in AMS.

 

I'd first try Rabobank. Since they have a large food & agri team with presence in NY, Singapore, HK and Sao Paolo, about half of their team is non-Dutch. Also pay is best among the Dutch "Big-3" (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank). Dutch (Benelux) coverage teams of BB or EB (Rothschild and William Blair are very strong too!) tend to hire Dutch speakers, and mainly hire out of internships or star analysts from the Big-3 Dutch Banks.

I've been working at an M&A boutique in NY over the past 6 months - back in Amsterdam now. Difference between large finance hubs and Amsterdam is the lack of cultural acceptance since everyone has the same background, university, fraternity, etc. Talent always succeeds, but mainly for this reason I think Rabo will be your best shot.

Hope this helps

 

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