Contact Us
×

Tag: investment banking training

Working in a Boutique vs a Bulge Bracket Investment Banking Firm

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

There has been a lot of news in the media recently about how investment banking fees are at an all-time low and how those multi-million dollar bonuses are about to take a beating. But recently the Financial Times noted how boutique banks like Evercore and Moelis are doing well, and are attracting a great deal of interest.

Firms like Centerview and Moelis have even broken into the top 20 fee earners. But what are boutiques? What is it like working for one and where can you possibly go?

What are boutiques?

Boutiques are independent investment banks that have often been created by senior investment bankers. Houlihan Lokey, the largest boutique in the world, was created by ex-banker Scott Adelson. They often play on the founder’s strength, industry vertical specialization or regional focus, and focus primarily on deal advisory – M&A, Capital raising both in the public and private markets, restructuring and corporate finance.

Boutique banks call themselves independent and without conflict. Essentially this means because they focus only on advisory, there are no conflicts with regard to public trading. So they will never be in a position where they might be advising company A on sale while another department trades that stock.

Boutique structure

They are often top heavy, filled with rainmakers and senior bankers and feature a flat organizational structure. What does that mean? That means as an analyst you are going to work very hard but also gain more exposure while you put in the hours.

Analysts and associates are treated like resources, which are farmed out to deals. In a bulge bracket, it’s quite likely you will spend all your time creating pitches. In a boutique however, because of the flat structure, you might even be asked to come into meetings, be part of the execution and learn something.

An investment banking deal is made up of four parts- Origination, Execution (Marketing) and Execution (Negotiation) and Closing. A bulge bracket is often divided by Origination and Execution, which means you are either going to be making pitches or information memorandums.

At a boutique, industry specialists often divide teams and so if you belong to one team, you will find yourself doing work across the deal process, which means you learn more. Pay is also a little different. Boutiques pay less at the entry level but your potential to earn gets higher closer to the top because bonuses become a large part of your pay structure.

Close a deal and you earn a significant portion of the bonus pool, which is of course spread across a smaller base than at a bulge bracket. You might earn more at a bulge bracket but you will learn less.

How about career progression?

Since they are flat structures with fewer options in terms of departments, there’s much less bureaucracy and more transparency with regards to promotions. But because there are fewer departments and not that many levels, there’s not that far you can go. But that doesn’t matter.

Associates and VP’s in boutiques can often be seen heading to bulge brackets if they don’t find proper career progression at their old firm. Because of their intensive deal experience, they are quickly absorbed into both Private Equity and Bulge Bracket investment banking teams both in the Equity Capital Market and Corporate Advisory.

What are India’s top boutique banks?
Avendus Capital, MAPE, Veda Corporate Advisors, O3 Capital, Spark Capital, Dinodia. You also have global boutiques like Lazard, Moelis and Co and Houghlin Lokey.

The Benefits of a CISI Certification with Imarticus Learning

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments is considered to be the leading professional body, globally, for securities, investment, wealth and financial planning professionals. Founded in the year 1992 by the London Stock Exchange, today, it has taken up the role of a global community, spanning around 116 countries and boasting of about 40,000 members. It was conferred the title of ‘Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment’ in the year 2009 when it was granted a Royal Charter. Headquartered in London, this global professional body has its offices spread over various countries, including Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, Dubai, and Dublin.

This professional body is known to offer close to 40,000 CISI qualifications every year in around 70 countries, to qualify for which candidates have to take the Computer Based Test in the various centres worldwide. Apart from this, it is also the chief examining body in the industry and thereby, offers a number of industry memberships and training to the qualifying candidates. Apart from offering qualifications, the CISI is also known to offer, the CPD scheme, also known as, Continuing Professional Development scheme, which is basically rewarded to the members of, every level of seniority, geographical location, as well as industry specialization. The institute is known to have certain charitable objectives, which are as follows;
“To promote, for the public benefit, the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in the field of securities and investments to develop high ethical standards for practitioners in securities and investments and to promote such standards in the UK and overseas to act as an authoritative body for the purpose of consultation and research in matters of education or public interest concerning investment in securities.”

Follow us on Linkedin for Company Insights

Being a member of this prestigious organization, sends out a message to all your clients and colleagues, including the wider public, that you as a professional, are committed to professionalism, integrity, and excellence. Becoming a CISI endorsed member is the most beneficial in terms of networking for a professional. One can easily access the international network of 40,000 financial practitioners.
Apart from this, the CISI body organizes a number of formal mixers, like forums, events, and other social media activities, which involve and encourage their members to build an array of networks and connections, with similar professionals from across the country. Any professional who is affiliated by the designations of CISI can meet up and keep abreast with the current happenings in the financial markets, while at the same time can also discuss them, with the top level delegates from across the world at any given point. The CISI body also offers a number of training courses apart from its social events and conferences. In order to get an entry into this elite bunch of people, one has to acquire the much coveted CISI certification.
International Certification & Placement You will receive the industry endorsed Certified Investment Banking Operations Professional (CIBOP) certification and the optional CISI certified IOC (Investment Operations Certificate). The Imarticus Learning Career Services and Placements team provides you guidance and assistance throughout the program, giving you the best career opportunities in leading international firms.

Understanding Financial Leverage the Physics Way!

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

We have often heard of Leverage in various Financial contexts such as a Leveraged Buyout, Leverage ratio of a Hedge fund etc. What does it mean?
Lets get to Physics first, for it is more common-sensical and straightforward
We define Torque as the radios vector multiplied by the force vector.
This finds application in as mundane a thing as opening a door.
The force we apply is of course the FORCE =F and the distance between the knob and the axis about which the door rotates is the RADIUS =R.
Imagine for a moment if the knob were to be fixed or engineered to be operated from the middle of the door instead of the end as we conventionally have it. This would mean that we would require more force for the same output. The output here being the door being opened. Say 45 degrees.
In the Financial scheme of things, the force that we apply is the monetary effort coming from ownership.i.e, say equity. The inherent radius is analogous to the inherent effortlessness involved of not having to ‘own’ or in other words, not having to raise equity but debt. The torque here could be considered as the revenue/profit/return
This situation of having more debt than equity is akin to having more radius and the knob of the door hence being attached to the end of the door. This makes the door opening rather relatively effortless.Or gaining profit effortlessly or by leverage.
So does that mean that a high leverage or debt is always the go-to choice of investment? I am afraid NOT necessarily.
Imagine the flip side of the door story. If someone were to have kept the hand at the edge of the door, while it is being closed .A given amount of force (equity) will definitely do more harm to the innocent hand when the radius is more (debt) than it would if the radius were less due to the door knob located unconventionally in the middle.
Needless to say financially it could go as far as saying “He burnt his fingers venturing into the business”!
Imarticus Learning offers short term courses in finance that not only train students to become investment bankers, or learn to manage their own finances via wealth management courses. Imarticus Learning is a leading industry expert trainer in financial services.

Author Bio :
Kumar Simha is an NIT Graduate with an MBA, Finance from HULT, Boston, USA, Kumar has more than 8 years of experience across Financial services, Business management and Training.

Banking Domain Primer

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

By Zenobia Sethna
The Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector is the backbone of the Indian economy employing approximately 4.5 million professionals. If you are looking for a career in Finance, you will see vacancies listing “Banking Domain Knowledge” as a requisite. But what does it mean? Banking itself can be of multiple types based on products and services on offer and the type of customers serviced.
For simplicity, one may define banking domain knowledge as the body of knowledge dealing with how different banking segments operate – across customers, sales & distribution, products & services, people, process and technology. This definition basically covers the end to end functioning of any bank.
Investment Banking Course
Let’s take a closer look at the operating model of a bank.
• Banking Segments – Broadly we have four types of banks: retail banks, corporate banks, investment banks and private banks. These are known as Banking segments.
• Clients – These are the customers who buy the bank’s products or services. These may be individuals looking to open a bank account or Institutions or other Banks looking for more corporate solutions or ways to invest their funds.
• Sales and Distribution Channels – This includes how the bank reaches out to its customers to make sales. This could be through emails, phone calls, on the Internet, TV ads etc.
• Products and Services – Products and services are the things the bank sells to customers for a fee. These would vary according to the banking segment. In retail banks, we would have products like deposit accounts and loans.
• People, process and technology – Finally we have the three components that underpin all of the above. These are people, processes and technology. People includes job roles and responsibilities, organization structures; processes define how customer transactions are fulfilled and what procedures to follow, while technology defines the IT infrastructure and systems that support the business.
Imarticus Learning offers many courses on Investment Banking and Retail Banking covering the multi-faceted functioning of these banks and their products and services. Contact us to know more.

Introduction to Investment Management

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

What is Investment Management? What does the investment management industry constitute?

The world of finance can be complicated. To simplify for the sake of understanding, let us consider the financial world as broadly constituting of banks – (retail, commercial, and investment), insurance companies, and investment managers.

Banking: Retail and commercial banks are the ones most people are familiar with and are mostly straightforward. They take in money through deposits from customers, other banks, and shareholders. They then distribute this money through credit cards and loans to individuals, companies, and other banks.

Retail and commercial banks make money on the interest charged on these loans. Investment banks on the other hand are more complicated. They allow their clients, which include investment managers, to trade on the financial markets. They also deal with IPO, mergers, and acquisitions.

Insurance: Insurance companies take in money by charging for private and corporate insurance policies, in return for against the unexpected. They in turn are protected from being unable to payout on policy claims by moving money to a reinsurance company and therefore reducing exposure.

Investment Management: Investment managers also known as fund or asset managers do as the name suggests – they manage investments of private investors, corporates, banks, or insurance companies. Investment managers make their clients’ money grow by using investment banks to buy and sell investments.

Let us consider the funds managed by an investment manager as raw material whether in shares, bonds, commodities, or derivatives, and an investment manager as a machine that converts this raw material into a product by using a series of processes. The product is a fund. The goal of the fund is to make money for the investors. Thus, an investment manager uses an investor’s money to make money.

These processes vary greatly and depend on the investment strategy used. E.g.: passive vs. active investment. However, the principle remains the same. The fund aims to make a return by balancing risk and rewards and thus, in a process-driven manner ensures effective mobilization/channeling of its resource i.e. money from investors.

Thus, the players in the investment management industry can be classified into just two broad categories – the investment managers and the investors. Investment occurs directly i.e. investment contracts or more commonly via collective investment schemes. A mutual fund is a type of collective investment scheme. They provide an efficient way of pooling funds for investment purposes.

The Flow of funds in the asset management industry:

*PMS – Portfolio Management Services, AMC – Asset Management Services, WM – Wealth Managers.

What is the Investment Process? What role does the investment manager play? What is the role of portfolio performance measurement in the investment process?

Like any process, the investment process can be broadly classified based on four phases – Plan, Do, Check and Act. Similarly, it is pertinent to note that the investment management process, forming a part of the investment process cannot be improved without performance measurement. The following is an overview of the Investment Process.

From the above, it is clear that for the investment process to be complete it needs to be measured. This measuring of the portfolio performance should preferably be a part of the investment management process itself. In this case, it will contribute to improving the portfolio management process internally and thus contribute to process improvement. On the other hand, performance measurement can be undertaken by the investor as a part of the larger investment process. In this case, the same measures behave as a stricter audit function rather than a must-suited process improvement role.