Vault 2010 Prestige Rankings: Top 50 Investment Banks

1 Goldman Sachs & Co.
2 The Blackstone Group
3 Morgan Stanley
4 J.P. Morgan Investment Bank
5 Lazard
6 Greenhill & Co.
7 Credit Suisse (Investment Banking Division)
8 Evercore Partners
9 Deutsche Bank AG
10 Rothschild
11 Barclays Capital
12 Perella Weinberg Partners
13 Moelis & Company
14 UBS Investment Bank
15 Houlihan Lokey
16 Jefferies & Company, Inc.
17 Citi Institutional Clients Group
18 HSBC Holdings
19 Wells Fargo & Company
20 Allen & Company Inc.
21 Bank of America Corp.
22 Macquarie Group
23 Piper Jaffray Companies
24 Oppenheimer & Co.
25 RBC Capital Markets

Discuss...

32 Comments
 

By the way. Not to rip on Goldman or anything. But they had GOLDMAN AS TOP CULTURE! I mean people love Goldman and rightfully so for many reasons, but I've never heard people raving about hot it is such a close, tight-nit, non-competitive environment where everyone gets along really well.

 

nvm:

26 Nomura Holdings, Inc. 27 Royal Bank of Scotland 28 Chase Commercial Bank 29 Dresdner Kleinwort 30 BNP Paribas 31 Thomas Weisel Partners 32 Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance 33 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (Wholesale Banking Division) 34 Centerview Partners 35 Keefe Bruyette & Woods Inc. 36 Robert W. Baird & Company 37 Broadpoint Gleacher Securities Group, Inc. 38 William Blair & Company 39 Bank of New York Mellon The 40 Cowen and Company LLC 41 Citi Consumer Banking 42 Brown Brothers Harriman 43 Raymond James Financial Inc. 44 Sandler O'Neill + Partners L.P. 45 Peter J. Solomon Company 46 KPMG Corporate Finance 47 U.S. Bancorp 48 BMO Capital Markets 49 Morgan Keegan Inc. 50 BB&T Corporation

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wallstwarrior19are all of these investment banks? I am pretty sure that BNYmellon doesnt do investment banking. If it does how could it be higher than cowen and co?

Not at all. That's what makes this list hilarious. US Bancorp? The only two things they have related to IB is structured finance and commercial real estate finance. No advisory at all.

 

For what it's worth, these arbitrary rankings are for the "Top 50 Banking Employers", not necessarily those that engage in classic investment banking.

Any list is going to be biased and arbitrary, but I would be curious to see some of your top 10s or top 15 ranking in the investment banking industry

 

touche

I guess I should have clarified that since boutiques and BBs dont have the same scale of operations, a junior role at an elite boutique may be more prestigious than one at UBS Investment Bank (nothing against UBS, just making an example)

Even though I could look at league M&A tables, I think that a minority of people would say that (as recently as 2008), Citi and UBS were more prestigious banking jobs than Morgan Stanley. I guess my two biases are for junior roles and exit opportunities, but I was wondering what others might consider as most prestigious at this point in time based on their views...there are often graduating seniors who post on this site and say I have an offer at X, Y, and Z and am looking for the most prestigious...I guess my question was along those lines; ranking the best junior opportunity overall

 

Even though it may be laughable, Vault guide is still useful when there are no alternative ranking systems to look for + it gives a good sense of investment banking for those who just started to get an interested in investment banking.

That being said, I am one of those ppl who cannot understand some banks are ranked above some of the rest.

 

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Career Advancement Opportunities

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Guggenheim Partners 02 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 99.0%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.4%

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October 2026 Investment Banking

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  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

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