IB Credit Market Structure
- 02:30
See how a typical investment bank organizes its credit business
Transcript
So how is a typical investment bank organized around the credit markets? What is the typical structure for an investment bank here? Well, first of all, you have the trading desks, the credit trading desks. And those trading desks deals with the agency flow transactions. What does that mean? Well, it simply means that they deal with the natural buying and selling that the customers of the bank is doing for smaller sizes. And this trading is, of course, in bonds that are already in existence. They're out there in the market, they're being traded. So the trading desk facilitates the trading for clients. So it makes sure that buyers and sellers meet in the market. And then you have the DCM, the debt capital markets group on the investment banking side of the business. And they're split up in four groups, generally speaking, along what you can see on the screen right now. So first of all, you have the investment grade capital markets group. As the name suggests, these people deal with investment-grade credits. So they provide guidance, advice, sales, and execution for institutions with a high credit rating, investment-grade credit trading. Products here include normal corporate bonds, hybrid bonds, preferred shares, et cetera, et cetera. And then we have the leveraged finance group. The leveraged finance group deals with clients where there is significant levels of debt. So this would be clients that are involved in things like LBOs, leveraged buyouts, MBOs, management buyouts, or recapitalizations. So the bonds that these guys deal with would usually be high yield bonds. The structured finance team deals mainly with securitization. Securitization is the process of repackaging various assets into traded paper securities. The assets that are securitized range from mortgages and car loans. We've all heard of them, all the way to aircraft loans, royalties, and intellectual property. You name it, and it can pretty much be securitized. And finally, there is usually an emerging markets group. So most banks will have a dedicated emerging markets group. And then this kind of makes sense, of course, because they will of course deal with issuers where the credit spreads are significantly higher than those of investment-grade bonds. But not because the issuers carry an enormous amount of debt, but because they're active in markets that are deemed more risky.