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Investment Banking (IB) refers to financial business that involves dealing mainly with institutional clients such as large corporations, large financial institutions (eg. Asset Management and Hedge Funds), governments or supranational entities.
IB activities are typically classified under three broad categories of: (i) corporate finance activities, (ii) capital market activities, and (iii) bespoke financial solutions.
CORPORATE FINANCING |
CAPITAL MARKETS |
BESPOKE SOLUTIONS |
Activities that deal with companies' source of longer-term funding, corporate structure and investment decisions:
| Originating and trading of financial instruments in the different markets. Trading can be done on the IB's account (proprietary trading or market making) or on clients' behalf (agency trading).
| Customized solutions provided to clients to match clients' risk return profile:
|
Did you know?Between 2016 and 2019 H1, local IPOs and foreign IPOs accounted for 52% and 48% of all listings on the Singapore Exchange respectively | ![]() |
Did you know?The first real estate investment trust (REIT) listed on Singapore Exchange was CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT) in July 2001. The lead underwriter for this IPO was DBS, with OCBC and UOB as the sub-underwriters. | ![]() |
Investment Banking provides a wide array of financial solutions to suit their clients’ needs. Here's a brief summary of the main IB activities.
1. Initial Public Offering (IPO) - refers to the process of offering shares of a private company to the public in a new stock issuance.
Services provided include:
2. Merger & Acquisition (M&A) - describes the process of consolidation of companies or assets into a combined new entity.
Services provided include:
3. Debt Capital Market (DCM) - refers to a market in which financial institutions help companies and governments to raise funds through the sales and trades of debt securities.
This is done by:
4. Equity Capital Market - refers to a market in which financial institutions help companies and governments to raise funds through the sales and trades of equity securities. Some examples are:
5. Structured Finance - an instrument customized for its clients with specific and complex needs that cannot be met by traditional financial products. Structured financing products are not liquid and cannot be sold easily in the market.
Examples include:
Mandatory Convertible Bond is a fixed income corporate debt that will be converted into a predetermined shares on maturity.
Value Proposition
Did you know?
Biggest IPO ever Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco's IPO is the biggest IPO ever in history which raised US$29.4b in 2019 on the Saudi Arabia stock exchange Tadawul.
| ![]() |
1. More stringent regulatory requirements
Regulatory requirements were strengthened since the global financial crisis in 2008/09. These regulations include Basel Accord III (globally), Volcker Rule (United States) and MiFID II (European Union).
The impacts are:
2. Trend of disintermediation accelerated
Disintermediation refers to the process whereby traders trade financial instruments directly in the financial markets without going through a bank.
Some IB biggest institutional clients had invested in networks or systems to trade amongst themselves and rely less on IB.
Disintermediation accelerated due to:
3. Disruption from FinTech
Technological advancement and its proliferation has resulted in the growth of FinTech companies where some progressively providing financial solutions in the IB space.
Examples include:
4. Fluctuating income
Business volume and income is volatile and highly dependent on deals (eg. IPO and M&A) due to unforeseeable events resulting from economic uncertainties, geopolitical tensions, or knee-jerk reactions in financial markets.
5. Niche skills demand
IB’s response to various challenges have seen them scaling up its investment in technology, resulting in targeted hiring of talents with niche skillsets and competencies.
Popularity of FinTech companies and volatile income (or increased job insecurity if deals run out) have further capped the attractiveness of IB as a career of choice.
To better understand the possible career pathways in Private Banking, you may refer to the Skills Framework for Financial Services.
The Skills Framework (SFw) is a SkillsFuture initiative developed for the Singapore workforce to promote skills mastery and lifelong learning, and is an integral component of the Financial Services Industry Transformation Plan.
Jointly developed by SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), Workforce Singapore (WSG), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF), together with industry associations, training providers, organisations and unions, the Skills Framework for Financial Services provides useful information on:
Navigate Skills Framework for Financial Services (SFwFS) |
Please refer to commonly used banking terms and acronyms here.
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