CB to Private Credit?
How easy would it be to move from CB over to Private Credit (Direct Lending or Distressed etc.)? Would note when I say CB, I’m referring to BB CIB (where CB and IB are housed together at JPM/BofA/Citi).
Is it a doable transition? Would one be better off trying to move to DCM or LevFin first?
Additionally, if staying within CB, is there a specific industry that would be seen as most applicable to a generalist PC role?
Bump
anything to PC is doable. I've seen fintech, accountants, equity research and operations move to PC. but its not easy, as you ask, it's more of a right place right time/'luck' move. but I'd say a move from DCM/Lev fin would be easier.
I think the UK is a little different tbh
Second this, doable but you really need to be at the right time which can take 2+ years
Extremely hard, most funds / HH in Europe at least will not consider anyone from corporate banking.
The fact that you are asking about transitioning to either DCM or LevFin means you simply haven't done your research. From DCM it is impossible since the skillset is completely different. Your best shot is to move into LevFin.
In Corporate Banking you lack the investor mindset, i.e. how to analyse a good credit, the commercial aspect and the modelling part. The products that you are dealing with won't be RCF, TLAs and Bridge Loans where you provide capital as a part of relationship lending. PC is usually sector agnostic, but with a big focus on the traditional PE sector, i.e. Tech, Business Services, Healthcare, Industrials, Consumer, etc. As long as you are not solely covering Infra or Real estate, then no one will care.
Distressed you can forget about, moving into an EB RX team is probably the best thing you can do.
Thanks for the response. Interesting to hear this viewpoint - had seen some threads of a few people who managed to go directly from CB to PC. Sounds like an uphill battle.
lol you clearly have no idea what corporate banking is. CB is heavily involved with all of the above if it's a decent CIB bank. Maybe some groups don't model but discounting all of CB entirely like you did is straight misinformation.
Lets not sugarcoat it and be biased because you work in Corporate Banking. Your best exit is FO role in IBD
I work in PC at a Mega Fund in London and can confirm that our team would not hire or interview anyone from Corporate Banking. The traditional route is either other top Private Credit funds or from Investment Banking.
Wonder if it’s partially a different between London and NY. Again would want to reiterate I’m speaking on BB CIB (JPM/BofA/Citi).
Per previous threads I know people have jumped directly from CB to PC, but looks that might be very group dependant and rely on how well you can spin leveraged experience.
I know a lot of people in PC who lateraled from BB credit roles. EU might be different in terms of how your team is structured. But at my US BB we do direct lending, syndications, sponsor backed, TLBs, etc. Most of our clients are non-investment grade and 90% of the time are private companies. I could see this being justified if you work for corporate credits for investment grade companies where you do the same pro-rata solution but not all CB banks work like that and people tend to generalize things based on one bank.
It all depends if your coverage groups do the full service of underwriting, structuring, and originating the issued debt which gives your the debt perspective to be competitive at landing PC roles.
Not saying you will have a shot a MF (know one person who went to Blackrock from BB credit) but there are nice shops located in LCOL with decent AUM and have a great lifestyle.
For sure it is an uphill battle. That being said, my viewpoint is mainly PC at the MFs. If you are interested in LMM mid-market PC and non-Sponsor led then I guess its more doable.
Disagree. Non-sponsor PC is way more intense than sponsor because the opportunity has not been vetted by an equity player, you have to do the DD, and you need to interface with management who are likely seeking expensive paper because things are not going well. Much more likely to see an equity component in non-sponsored deals as well in my experience
Depends how well you can sell your experience (i.e. if your group handles models and runs the full approval process especially for LevFin deals, pretty easy to sell that as transferable skills that are not too different from lending shops). The CB side for my group does not fit that but I've seen people from other CB groups be really attractive candidates for PC gigs and make that jump pretty easily.
That makes sense thanks.
Unfortunately group I’m in rarely holds the model. Are there certain industry groups within CB that you’ve seen which tend to model more and do more LevFin related stuff?
Of course transferring over to LevFin would be ideal but market is pretty dry for that right now.
Power & energy groups do a good bit at my bank
Some people in this thread don't know that many corporate banking professionals also work on leveraged credits.
I've seen multiple people move from corporate banking to private credit.
Hate when people so assertively speak out of their ass on here.
Nice, that’s good to hear.
Any industries where you’ve seen CB roles more focused on leveraged credits than others?
biotech, med services,
Moving to LevFin to PC is your best bet.
Everyone saying you can from CB have a little bit of recency bias. The growth of PC and massive hiring during the easy money period during COVID made it easier to get into the buy side from any background - too many jobs than people with the proper background. Now it’s the opposite, with all the lay-offs and the current credit tightening cycle you will be competing against too many people with a better background for less overall jobs. So from my perspective, making it unlikely that a switch will be possible.
Just my 2 cents, good luck!
No this isn't recency bias. I've seen a number of folks pre-covid move to private credit from CB.
I am not saying that most people in CB can make the jump - I'm saying the people who deal with leveraged deals now have the exact skill set required.
I've seen analysts at cookie cutter regional commercial banking gigs make the jump to PC. Harder, yes, but the jump certainly is doable especially if you go underwriting or PM.
Actually fair, was thinking of backgrounds at the MF Direct Lending arms. Never really considered a lot of the smaller direct lenders as well as the pure direct lenders such as Antares and Golubs of the world - all of them have plenty of CB backgrounds.
That said, still believe that LevFin would put you a step ahead of those in CB.
CB to Private Credit is easily doable and actually the most common route at MM and LMM funds in Europe/UK. Followed by Big 4, rating agencies and MM IB being the other main ones. Hardy anyone from BB/EB IBD background goes to MM PC as there is a significant salary discount at Associate level (IB Associate base £110k+ vs PC Associate base: £70k/£80k)
Make sure you are in more of a credit focused role (such as structured/project finance, portfolio management) than a pure relationship management in corporate banking as the skill set is more in line with PC.
Brief names of MM funds where this is normal?
I would agree with this as well, I work in Private Credit today and have seen a number of people make this transition. Yes, is it a tougher transition when compared to an IB or a different Private Credit role, of course. But that being said, the transition to a MM shop (TwinBrook, Deerpath, John Hancock, Maranon) is doable. Some firms are more open than others when going directly to the investment team in an underwriting role, as some may prefer you to spend some time on the portfolio management group first before eventually switching over. Basically, it's absolutely doable, but likely very tough to get into a LMM so you'll need to start at a smaller shop and then work your way up from there.
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