Financial Institutions Group

The Financial Institutions Group is the crown jewel of investment banking M&A and capital markets coverage, but it runs a fundamentally different analytical framework than corporate coverage. Value a bank like a corporate in the interview and you've lost before you've started. The regulatory lens is non-negotiable. Every decision flows through CET1 ratios, leverage ratios, MREL, and Solvency II. Banks are capital-constrained and cannot grow assets freely. Trading books create volatility banks cannot control, and P/E multiples are useless for valuation. You'll work in Net Interest Income, Net Revenue, Operating Profit, ROTE, and justified P/TBV instead. The liability side is existential: deposits, funding structure, and refinancing risk matter as much as the asset book. Coverage spans universal and retail banks, life and P&C insurers, reinsurance, asset management, wealth management, private equity and alternatives, exchanges and market infrastructure, payments and fintech, specialty finance, and mortgage lenders. Each subsector has its own metric stack: Embedded Value and VNB margin for life, combined ratios for P&C, revenue yield in basis points for asset managers, take rate and net revenue retention for fintechs (never TPV alone). Expect sharp questions on IFRS 9 post-model overlays, Solvency II matching adjustments, the IFRS 17 transition, and PRA, FCA, and ECB approval timelines running 6–18 months for M&A. Rates, credit cycles, and thematic narratives drive 20–30% share price swings. Watch the warning signs: rising RWA density, declining NPL coverage, heavy reliance on overlays.

Sector coverage · from the G2G library

The whole story of this desk is a chapter in the G2G library.

Open jobs that use this (8)