BULGE BRACKET BANKS

Bulge bracket banks are the world's largest multi-national investment banks, serving mostly large corporations, institutional investors and governments. There is no definitive list of bulge bracket banks.

Bulge bracket banks usually provide both advisory and financing banking services, as well as the sales, market making, and research on a broad array of financial products including equities, credit, rates, commodities and their derivatives. They are also heavily involved in the invention of new financial products, such as mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the 1980s, credit default swaps in the 1990s and collateralized debt obligations (CDO) in the 2000s and today, carbon emission trading and insurance-linked products.

Bulge bracket firms are usually primary dealers in US treasury securities. Bulge bracket banks are also global in the sense that they have a strong presence in all four of the world's major regions: the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC).

"Bulge Bracket" commonly refers to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.

PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. Choose the correct answer with reference to the following statements.

A.    Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in the US.

B.    It is one of the nine global "bulge bracket" banks providing services in investment banking, private banking, asset management, and shared services.

1) A only

2) B only

3) Both A and B

4) Neither A nor B

Answer: 2