top investment banksTop investment banks are called "bulge bracket" investment banks, which is Wall Street jargon for the top elite in this business. The bracket refers to investment banking "tombstones", which are public advertisements placed by investment bankers in a public offering of a security. The ad gives basic details about the issue and, in order of importance, the underwriting groups involved in the deal, in brackets. There are no official rating agencies putting companies into the different brackets in everyday investment banker talk. Instead, some companies are generally just considered to belong to the bulge bracket, based on their ranking within the industry, based on number of deals and dollar volume. Top Investment Banks - Bulge BracketAlthough there is no official classification of which firms belong to the bulge bracket, some investment banks are generally considered to belong to that group. These companies include at least:
The investment banks are also ranked in different categories of investment banking business. These rankings are very important for the investment bankers, not only because their bonuses and other compensation details may depend on these rankings. The investment banking areas where the rankings, or league tables are conducted include at least:
The league tables are maintained by providers of financial information, such as Thomson Financial. You can take a look at the available league tables from Thomson Financial at thomson.com/financial/investbank/fi_investbank_league_table.jsp The league tables are also published by the banks themselves, and these companies seem always to find a way to present the rankings in a favorable way to themselves. |