The main activities and units
The primary function of an investment bank is buying and selling products both on behalf of the bank’s clients and also for the bank itself. Banks undertake risk through proprietary trading, done by a special set of traders who do not interface with clients and through Principal Risk, risk undertaken by a trader after he or she buys or sells a product to a client and does not hedge his or her total exposure. Banks seek to maximize profitability for a given amount of risk on their balance sheet.
Front Office
Investment Banking is the traditional aspect of investment banks which involves helping customers raise funds in the Capital Markets and advising on mergers and acquisitions. Investment banking may involve subscribing investors to a security issuance, coordinating with bidders, or negotiating with a merger target. Other terms for the Investment Banking Division include Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and Corporate Finance. The Investment Banking Division (commonly referred to as IBD) is generally divided into industry coverage and product coverage groups. Industry coverage groups focus on a specific industry such as Healthcare or Technology, and maintain relationships with corporations within the industry to bring in business for the bank. Product coverage groups focus on financial products, such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Sponsors, and Leveraged Finance.
Investment management is the professional management of various securities (shares, bonds, etc.) and other assets (e.g. real estate), to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors. Investors may be institutions (insurance companies, pension funds, corporations etc.) or private investors (both directly via investment contracts and more commonly via collective investment schemes eg. mutual funds). The Investment management division of an investment banking is generally divided into separate groups, often known as Private Wealth Management and Private Client Services. Private Wealth Management deals with institutional investors, while Private Client Services manages the funds of high net-worth individuals.
Sales and Trading is often the most profitable area of an investment bank[citation needed], responsible for the majority of revenue generated by most investment banks[citation needed]. In the process of market making, traders will buy and sell financial products with the goal of making an incremental amount of money on each trade. Sales is the term for the investment banks sales force, whose primary job is to call on institutional and high-net-worth investors to suggest trading ideas (on caveat emptor basis) and take orders. Sales desks then communicate their clients’ orders to the appropriate trading desks, who can price and execute trades, or structure new products that fit a specific need.
Research is the division which reviews companies and writes reports about their prospects, often with "buy" or "sell" ratings. While the research division generates no revenue, its resources are used to assist traders in trading, the sales force in suggesting ideas to customers, and investment bankers by covering their clients. There is a potential conflict of interest between the investment bank and its analysis in that published analysis can affect the profits of the bank. Therefore in recent years the relationship between investment banking and research has become highly regulated requiring a Chinese wall between public and private functions, reducing its importance to the investment bank.
Structuring has been a relatively recent division as derivatives have come into play, with highly technical and numerate employees working on creating complex structured products which typically offer much greater margins and returns than underlying cash securities. The necessity for numerical ability has created jobs for physics and math Ph.D.’s who act as quants.
Middle Office
Risk Management involves analyzing the market and credit risk that traders are taking onto the balance sheet in conducting their daily trades, and setting limits on the amount of capital that they are able to trade in order to prevent ‘bad’ trades having a detrimental effect to a desk overall. Another key Middle Office role is to ensure that the above mentioned economic risks are captured accurately (as per agreement of commercial terms with the counterparty), correctly (as per standardized booking models in the most appropriate systems) and on time (typically within 30 minutes of trade execution). In recent years the risk of errors has become known as "operational risk" and the assurance Middle Offices provide now includes measures to address this risk. When this assurance is not in place, market and credit risk analysis can be unreliable and open to deliberate manipulation.
Operations involves data-checking trades that have been conducted, ensuring that they are not erroneous, and transacting the required transfers. While some believe it provides the greatest job security with the bleakest career prospects of the divisions within an investment bank, many have outsourced operations. It is however a critical part of the bank that involves managing the financial information of the bank and ensures efficient capital markets through the financial reporting function. In recent years due to increased competition in finance related careers, college degrees are now mandatory at most Tier 1 investment banks. A finance degree has proved significant in understanding the depth of the deals and transactions that occur across all the divisions of the bank.
Back Office
Finance areas are responsible for an investment bank’s capital management and risk monitoring. By tracking and analyzing the capital flows of the firm, the Finance division is the principal adviser to senior management on essential areas such as controlling the firm’s global risk exposure and the profitability and structure of the firm’s various businesses.
Technology refers to the IT department. Every major investment bank has considerable amounts of in-house software, created by the Technology team, who are also responsible for Computer and Telecommunications-based support. Technology has changed considerably in the last few years as more sales and trading desks are using electronic trading platforms. These platforms can serve as auto-executed hedging to complex model driven algorithms.
An investment bank can also be split into private and public functions with an Chinese wall which separates the two to prevent information from crossing. The private areas of the bank deal with private insider information that may not be publically disclosed, while the public areas such as stock analysis deal with public information.
