Which industry sectors / specializations tend to be the most profitable in commercial banking?
Currently looking to get into commercial banking and was wondering if the WSO community had any thoughts on which industry sectors / specializations tended to be the most profitable specifically within the commercial banking division (i.e. excluding investment & corporate banking, asset management).
Understand this will vary widely based on size of bank / segmentation but thought I would get a conversation started on here by listing a couple of industry sectors / specializations that I have seen on commercial banking websites. If there is an additional high profit specialization / industry sector I didn't touch on, please fee free to discuss in the comments section.
- Commercial Real Estate Finance
- Asset Based Lending
- Equipment Finance
- Franchise / Restaurant Finance
- FIG / Specialty / Securities Finance
- Food / Beverage / Agribusiness
- International / Cross-Border Finance
- Government / Healthcare / Education / Non-Profit Finance
- Technology (i.e. MRR / ARR Financing)
- Auto Dealership Finance
- Diversified Industries
- Private Equity / Sponsor Finance
- Life Sciences Finance
I would advise you focus on getting into a good training or rotational program at a top bank. Second to that, determine what you'd like to do, what industries you find appealing and where you want to end up in the future. Think about where the industry could go as a whole
If you search by industry, try to find one that specializes in what you're looking for. ie Rabo for food, or SVB for tech, life sci, and PE.
Dealer and Franchise finance are B O R I N G.
Appreciate the advice. With all of the layoffs going on late last year at big names (e.g. Wells Fargo, BMO) and everyone trying to improve their efficiency ratio; was just trying to get a sense for groups that have a better chance at avoiding cuts given their high profitability levels but understand cyclicality in the industry is a matter of fact.
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