I would like to know your opinion on the best banks and the worst from a quantitative point of view. I suggest that you share your view by ranking the banks listed below. You just have to answer the question : if I have a proposition from theses companies, which one would I pick first, second, third...You do not have to justify your ranking.1. BNP Paribas2. Goldman Sachs3. Credit Suisse4. JP Morgan5. Bear Stearns6. Morgan Stanley7. CALyon8. Natixis9. Merrill Lynch10. Barclays11. Citigroup12. KBC13. Société Générale14. Deutsch Bank15. HSBC16. Bank of America17. Fortis18. UBS19. Lehman Brothers20. Whatever bank I ommited to write

Is that your ranking?

nope, it wrote it randomly. What is yours ?

Actually, I think it is the wrong granularity...The variation between parts of the same bank may be far higher than between different banks.

Yes, groups within banks vary far more than averages across banks. Each big bank is a sprawling feudal empire - for example if you're in equities, fixed income can be a whole different kingdom far, far away (even if they're on the next floor). [More sadly, so can IT ;(].And then within any department such as equities I'll bet any big name bank has a lot of mediocre groups, some great ones, and some that really suck.Finally, I believe most of the people who visit this particular forum are those who would like to be in finance - some already are, but judging by the content of the average thread they're well below half. Therefore, even if there was an intrinsic ranking, a popularity poll on Wilmott is unlikely to measure it well.There was some survey about 'best place to work' I saw a couple of months ago, based on surveys of a random sample of the respective firm's _employees_, I'm sure you could google it. That is also not the ultimate truth, but the information content is likely to be higher. By the way, I think UBS was the best-rated big name in that particular list

There is a list compiled by VAULT every year. From their 2008 ranking of the most prestigious banks, excluding hedge funds and commercial banks, here is a list that I think makes a lot of sense. Of course, it also depends on the market sector such as equity, or fixed income, or FX. But generally speaking, I think it makes sense. It's like even though the CS major of CMU is better than MIT, but generally we know that MIT is more prestigious than CMU.Goldman SachsMorgan StanleyLehman BrothersJPMorgan Investment BankMerrill LynchCredit Suisse Investment Banking DivisionUBS Investment BankDeutsche Bank Bear StearnsBarclays Capital

And here is the best place to work in London in 2008 poll I was thinking about: 1. Nomura International2. Morley Fund Management3. UBS Investment Bank4. State Street5. Credit Suisse6. Rabo International7. GAM8. Bank of America9. Merrill Lynch10. Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe11. Dresdner Kleinwort12. Citi13. Barclays Capital14. Goldman Sachs15. Man Group16. Macquarie17. PIMCO Europe18. Royal Bank of Scotland19. Jefferies & Co20. BlackRock21. Schroders22. Lehman Brothers23. Bear Stearns24. Fortis25. Morgan Stanley26. Clifford Chance27. 3i28. Northern Trust29. JPMorgan30. Threadneedle Asset Management

Actually, this is what you are looking for http://news.hereisthecity.com/features/ ... 1.cntnsThe Best Place To Work In The Global Financial Markets Is....Here's the full table of the Top 32 firms (last year's position in brackets):1(18). Merrill Lynch2(6). UBS3(5). Nomura4(56). Credit Suisse5(2). Morley Fund Management6(36). State Street7(33). Bank of America8(4). Dresdner Kleinwort9(1). Jefferies & Co10(28). KBC Group11(23). BNP Paribas12(21). Barclays Capital13(50). JPMorgan Chase14(34). Citi15(8). Rabobank16(3). Daiwa Securities SMBC17(27). Goldman Sachs18(15). Royal Bank of Scotland19(14). Bear Stearns20(79). GAM21(). PIMCO22(53). AIG (America International Group)23(48). Morgan Stanley24(10). Threadneedle Asset Management25(78). Fidelity Investments26(71). BlackRock27(39). Lehman Brothers28(7). Fortis29(64). Man Group30(38). Schroders Investment Management31(43). Deutsche Bank32(24). Standard & Poor's

The problem with ranking is always that it doesn't tell you whether the difference between two entries in a ranked list is significant or not. For all we know the error bars could overlap hugely between two of them and it is likely to be the case considering how different lists give different rankings. You usually can say that the top of the list is significantly better than the bottom, but you porbably cannot make a similar statement about those ranked 6 and 7 say. In the same way you can say that Oxford and Cambridge (say) are significantly better than some red-brick poly, but is Cambridge significantly different from Oxford? No.Also, any list will have bias in it, either systematic or not, depending on how your ranking individual data. Do I rank worker happiness and pay with the same weights, or is one unit (define unit) or happiness worth more or less than one unit of pay? They are obviously correlated but they are also correlated with other factors like hours worked. Again how do you weigh this? The bottom line is that ranking is not an exact science.

QuoteOriginally posted by: HinstingsThere is a list compiled by VAULT every year. From their 2008 ranking of the most prestigious banks, excluding hedge funds and commercial banks, here is a list that I think makes a lot of sense. Of course, it also depends on the market sector such as equity, or fixed income, or FX. But generally speaking, I think it makes sense. It's like even though the CS major of CMU is better than MIT, but generally we know that MIT is more prestigious than CMU.Goldman SachsMorgan StanleyLehman BrothersJPMorgan Investment BankMerrill LynchCredit Suisse Investment Banking DivisionUBS Investment BankDeutsche Bank Bear StearnsBarclays CapitalI think it makes more sense to switch Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers.

This list is funny. I understand that it is never easy to justify a list. However, this list is really tooooooooo unstable to be of any information. Just look at this: last year this yearMerryll Lynch 18 1Credit Suisse 56 4Bank of America 33 7Daiwa 3 16QuoteOriginally posted by: sunmakerActually, this is what you are looking for http://news.hereisthecity.com/features/ ... 1.cntnsThe Best Place To Work In The Global Financial Markets Is....Here's the full table of the Top 32 firms (last year's position in brackets):1(18). Merrill Lynch2(6). UBS3(5). Nomura4(56). Credit Suisse5(2). Morley Fund Management6(36). State Street7(33). Bank of America8(4). Dresdner Kleinwort9(1). Jefferies & Co10(28). KBC Group11(23). BNP Paribas12(21). Barclays Capital13(50). JPMorgan Chase14(34). Citi15(8). Rabobank16(3). Daiwa Securities SMBC17(27). Goldman Sachs18(15). Royal Bank of Scotland19(14). Bear Stearns20(79). GAM21(). PIMCO22(53). AIG (America International Group)23(48). Morgan Stanley24(10). Threadneedle Asset Management25(78). Fidelity Investments26(71). BlackRock27(39). Lehman Brothers28(7). Fortis29(64). Man Group30(38). Schroders Investment Management31(43). Deutsche Bank32(24). Standard & Poor's

QuoteOriginally posted by: HinstingsThis list is funny. I understand that it is never easy to justify a list. However, this list is really tooooooooo unstable to be of any information. Just look at this: last year this yearMerryll Lynch 18 1Credit Suisse 56 4Bank of America 33 7Daiwa 3 16I rest my case

QuoteOriginally posted by: StephenLiQuoteOriginally posted by: HinstingsThere is a list compiled by VAULT every year. From their 2008 ranking of the most prestigious banks, excluding hedge funds and commercial banks, here is a list that I think makes a lot of sense. Of course, it also depends on the market sector such as equity, or fixed income, or FX. But generally speaking, I think it makes sense. It's like even though the CS major of CMU is better than MIT, but generally we know that MIT is more prestigious than CMU.Goldman SachsMorgan StanleyLehman BrothersJPMorgan Investment BankMerrill LynchCredit Suisse Investment Banking DivisionUBS Investment BankDeutsche Bank Bear StearnsBarclays CapitalI think it makes more sense to switch Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers.Most of the people I know on the Street regards Lehman Brothers is more prestigious than Merryll Lynch. I agree with them. So it makes sense to me that they do not switch the positions.

I absolutely stopped caring about rankings after looking at who Risk magazine named as equity derivatives house of the year for 2007 in January 2008.

QuoteOriginally posted by: twofishI absolutely stopped caring about rankings after looking at who Risk magazine named as equity derivatives house of the year for 2007 in January 2008.Come on, give me a break. One mistake and you dont care anymore ? And it's not that much of a mistake, they didnt get the "risk manager of the year" award :-p