"Bulge Bracket"(sometimes abbreviated with "BB") is a slang term to describe the largest and most profitable multinationalinvestment banksin the world whose banking clients are normally huge institutions, corporations, and governments. The phrase originates from the manner in which investment banks are listed on the public notification of a new financial deal or transaction - or the "tombstone." The bookrunning manager, or bank with control of security allocation to investors, is listed above all others and on the prospectus cover. The printing size of the font for this top bank is larger than the others and tends to "bulge" out.
Bulge Bracket Firm List
Some debate exists over which banks are considered to be "bulge bracket" since there is no universally recognized criteria for membership in the group.
Some banks that are commonly recognized as being a part of this group are: Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Securities, and UBS. If you'd like to see how some users rank these banks and their rankings of top boutiques, reference thisforum.
The list of Bulge Bracket Investment Banks typically includes:
- Bank of America Securities (BofA Securities)
- Barclays Capital (BarCap)
- Citigroup (Citi)
- Credit Suisse (CS)
- Deutsche Bank (DB)
- Goldman Sachs (GS or Goldman)
- J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM)
- Morgan Stanley (MS)
- UBS
Bulge Bracket Services and Clients
Thesebulge bracket investment bankstypically offer both financing and advisory banking services, in addition to market making, sales, and research for a large range of financial products like credit, equities, commodities and derivatives. Some of them are also known to have services in the asset management and leveraged finance space. Bulge bracket banks also tend to be very involved in creating novel financial products like mortgage backed securities, carbon emission trading, credit default swaps, and insurance products. The bulge bracket investment banks are normally primary dealers in U.S. treasuries.
BBbanking clients are typically large corporations and even governments, and bulge bracket firms offer financial advisory services among other finance services for their clients. These banks typically operate in deal sizes of multi million dollars. The exclusive Bulge Bracket Investment Bank List consists of the most profitable and largest multinational investment banks in the world.
Difference Between Working at a BB vsMMvs Boutique
BB银行大规模,跨国corporations. They offer all kinds of services to clients (IBD, sales and trading, Asset Management) and many also run a commercial banking operation (JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, Bank of America). The type of work, positions available and compensation are very similar across all of the banks.
On the other hand,middle market (MM)and boutique banks are regional and may not offer the same services when compared to their BB counterparts. Their deal size can range from anywhere from $50 million to $500 million. MM firms may have some if not all of the same services that their BB counterparts have. These would include, M&A, asset management, and restructuring advisory. Boutique banks often do not offer the full range of services that their BB counterparts have and instead choose to focus on one service like M&A. Their staff size is also much smaller than BB, typically ranging from a few dozen to at most a few thousand employees.
While you will certainly be working very long hours, you can expect marginally better hours working in a boutique bank compared to a BB. Bulge bracket banks typically have a more competitive work culture (similar to elite boutique investment banks), with analysts and associates climbing to be the best in their group. However, with this competitive environment comes the added prestige of working at a BB compared to the smaller counterparts of a middle market or boutique bank.
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