Ranking Investment Banks in 2021

Hello, after seeing some of the atrocities in a recent thread, I decided to put my honest and researched efforts into a new and revised comprehensive rankings of investment banks fit for 2021 (Roths RX on the decline, etc).

General composite rankings

BBs and Balance Sheet Banks (in order):
Tier 1: GS, MS, JPM
Tier 2: Bofa, Barclays, Citi, CS
Tier 3: RBC, DB, UBS
Tier 4: Wells Fargo (maybe 3 they have solid outlook), Nomura, BMO, etc lol

(Citi gets on a lot of M&A because they have the largest balance sheet. Barclays has better groups in terms of advisory, however, and they do M&A in-house so they get the edge for me. plus better culture from my conversations)


EBs and MMs (in order):
Tier 1: Evercore, CVP, PJT,
Tier 2: Moelis, Lazard, Perella, M Klein
Tier 3: LionTree, Guggenheim, Greenhill, Raine,

Tier 3.5:  Jefferies (really hard to place them tbh)
Tier 4: Blair, PJ Solomon, Houlihan Lokey, BairdRothschild
Tier 5: HW, Piper, Lincoln
Tier 6: Cowen, RayJay, Macquarie, Stifel
Tier 7: Stephens, etc

(obviously variations and happy to incorporate feedback but this is generally what I feel is correct, can be extremely group dependent)


Restructuring rankings (in order):
Tier 1: PJT, HL, Laz, Moelis
Tier 1.5: EVR
Tier 2: Centerview, Ducera, Guggenheim, PWP, Greenhill, Jeff (see comment below)
Tier 2.5: Rothschild (lost their top dog and it remains to be seen how they compete)
Tier 3: Miller Buckfire, PJ Solomon (MB is in decline unfortunately)


Technology IB rankings (SF in order):
Tier 1: GS TMT, Q, MS Menlo (gonna get flak for this)
Tier 2: JPM, Lazard, Evercore, Bofa, CVP, Moelis
Tier 2.5: LionTree, Raine, DBO, similar tech boutiques that spun out of BBs
Tier 3: UBS, DB, Barclays, CS, Citi
Tier 3.5: FTP, PWP (best deals for PWP are in NYC)
Tier 4: PJT, Greenhill, Guggenheim (only clean-energy/greentech), Rothschild

(I had a rough ass time placing Tier 3-4 on this, would welcome feedback)


Overall, if I were a prospect considering offers (nothing else matters), below would be my general composite rankings. Of course preferences can change things wildly. Not everyone wants to do coverage work and work on hella balance sheet stuff at JPM while making $50k less than their counterpart at PWP that works on more M&A with a better culture, etc.


But for me, if I am weighing top BB or EB, I would chose the EB every day of the week. So here goes. Hopefully this doesn't attract vitriol but for some it may help them understand where everyone is placed in the market


My personal rankings

(weighting culture, comp, exits, mentorship, dealflow) (force-ranking only NYC IB non RX):

Tier 1 (in order): CVP, EVR, PJT, Moelis, Lazard
Tier 2: GS, PWP, MS, JPM, Guggenheim, M Klein, LionTree, Raine
Tier 3: Bofa, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Greenhill, Ducera (they do some M&A)
Tier 4: Jefferies, Blair (<3), UBS, RBC, PJ Solomon, DB
Tier 5: HL, Rothschild, Baird, HW, Piper Lincoln, Wells (NYC)
Tier 6: Greentech (in Nomura), Leerink, Cowen,
Tier 7: Sitfel, RayJay, Macquarie, Stifel
Everything else I cannot split hairs and would still welcome a job at a Mizuho, BMO shop but wouldn't expect to place lights out.



 

"Citi gets on a lot of M&A because they have the largest balance sheet. Barclays has better groups in terms of advisory, however, and they do M&A in-house so they get the edge for me" 

I have the league tables in front of me via CapIQ. In the past 3 years (US only), screened for M&A and specifically financial advisory, these are the rankings of transaction value for the BBs. So Citi definitely doesn't just get credit based on "balance sheet." In fact their transaction value is better than BofA, CS, and 85 billion better than Barclays...

 

Can someone provide more color on the RX threads, specifically how the Millstein acquisition and the exodus at Rothschild will impact this rankings?

I think It's slow in RX-land right now so I'm sure someone can help

 

exodus at rothschild rx is quite a bit overstated. as commented below they killed it in energy and cross-border transactions this past cycle. would not discount rothschild's current platform and also its legacy prestige of being a top 3-5 rx shop. generalist program for SA, but assuming you place into the group full-time, you should have no issue with exiting into some of the top credit shops. Also culture of group is top notch.

 

rothschild also replaced millstein on puerto rico back in 2017. also on argentina, venezuela so seems like the place to go for sovereigns.

 

roth also got kicked off puerto rico - friend on the deal's boss got em knocked out

 
Most Helpful

All of this is useless if you have a psychopath MD/Director/VP that makes your life hell. Just go with the bank that you feel the culture fits best for you because no amount of "prestige" will make you happy. Of course you want to go to a good bank, but just know that people and culture is a huge factor in day to day life.

 

rothschild has picked up lots of high-profile debtor-side mandates on energy deals through their partnership with intrepid (boutique run by former barclays head of NR). the NY analysts also get on lots of large cross-border transactions from the strength of their rx franchise internationally. don't think they belong below jefferies which didn't really win any notable reps (outside of some UCCs) this past cycle.

 

They were majority UCC (with one debtor advisory) but saw Jefferies in action on energy RX deals. Gulfport (which was brought along with the ex PJT partner), Valaris (largest OFS rx) EP Energy (UCC) and Foresight ( financial advisory to company) come to mind. I believe the biggest one Rothschild did was Chesapeake but other energy related mandates don’t jump out at first glance. Also, as you mentioned, the work is done in partnership with intrepid so it’s split amongst a big team.

This is not to say Rothschild is bad and tbh I think Rothschild should be on the same tier. The commentary is made forward looking, Rothschild RX has seen some big exits whereas Jefferies has added people from arguably one of the best RX groups (PJT RSSG and EVR RX).

Having said Roth RX could potentially be bumped up one level (to match Jef).

 

analyst program is generalist for moelis. evercore rx is definitely a better rx experience for analysts with the whole package in terms of strong exits/comp/dealflow. as for the rx group as a whole, would say the type of caliber deals they do are similar (with evercore having a stronger tilt towards energy deals). would bump evercore to tier 1

 

Sounds like you made a good faith effort at arriving at informed/objective opinion (as much as an opinion can be "objective.")   

 

Thank you. I noticed there is a gap between professionals that realize rankings are stupid as fuck (therefore don't entertain these threads) and prospects that give incomplete/uninformed opinions on this topic because it is relatively important to them and it fuels an ego that's coming off of a similar exercise for college rankings.

I attempted to bridge this whilst being helpful although no ranking will be perfect

 

Yeah I would say it has more “prestige” than the NY office but I wouldn’t say it significantly outclasses it although it is definitely the best office in LA and will get you looks anywhere Ive heard

 

Technology boutique rankings: not doing tiers but listing names 

1. Q (on its own league) 

2. LionTree (Telecom, a great place to get traditional M&A experience, strong exit to PE) 

3. Raine (Media, like the hybrid model, more of a career move) 

4. Allen & Co (TMT, more of a career move) 

5. FTP (Fintech, execution only, mix exit)

6. Nomura Greentech (Greentech, heard good things about exit)

7. DBO (big deal value, very hard to place this one as there is a little track records in terms of exit) 

8. Union Square Advisors 


 

 

tell me u dont know shit about restructuring banks without telling me u dont know shit about restructuring banks

 

One huge caveat should be group placement. All the BBs you rank below liontree gugg raine etc have groups that are just as good if not better and you get a BB brand name. I think some naïveté on your part on how good some of those groups really are and how people actually perceive them on Wall Street.

I more mean to say even with your massive premium on a boutique experience those boutiques are at best similar to the BBs or even worse- considering some BB groups are very very small and selective. You should bump those down probably but larger boutiques have their own brand as well like Lazard. Don't think any of the others really do though.

Especially seeing how high you placed Ducera and some of the other boutiques which have horrible culture. Honestly you should bump down Lazard for their comp, bump down gugg, mklein, etc and lump with the BBs then bump down ducera and greenhill (non rx).

 

NotSarcastic

One huge caveat should be group placement. All the BBs you rank below liontree gugg raine etc have groups that are just as good if not better and you get a BB brand name. I think some naïveté on your part on how good some of those groups really are and how people actually perceive them on Wall Street.

I more mean to say even with your massive premium on a boutique experience those boutiques are at best similar to the BBs or even worse- considering some BB groups are very very small and selective. You should bump those down probably but larger boutiques have their own brand as well like Lazard. Don't think any of the others really do though.

Especially seeing how high you placed Ducera and some of the other boutiques which have horrible culture. Honestly you should bump down Lazard for their comp, bump down gugg, mklein, etc and lump with the BBs then bump down ducera and greenhill (non rx).

Are you from one of those said BBs...?

 

can you see my profile tag, no. In fact I never applied to a single BB for banking when I recruited (never recruited that late or had a chance, and was extremely biased to boutiques)

however, I did mentor some smart kids that ended up in those BBs and previously I might have agreed (I personally prefer boutiques much more and if I didn't go PE would have preferred a boutique IB) but after doing a lot more research and having been on PE side and being on the street think that it's pretty ridiculous to rank some of these newer boutiques over banks that have been around forever and have literally the best group on the entire street or up there. I think it's extremely naive actually and I don't like that perception at all. The BBs are actually really, really good still and shouldn't be talked down so much (so I am somewhat being defensive) as they are on this site.

Different story if u end up in DCM or some shit or some random ass group but I know that some of the lower BB groups that are extremely good tend to place better than spots in GS for example. Also considering the number of spots at boutiques, top groups at BBs are basically the same (since they are equally small if not actualyl smaller).

Good day 2 u sir, just my 0,002

 

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