The Financial Institutions Group (FIG): Specialization Superhighway or Dreary Dungeon?
Depending on the person, the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) could be the most technically challenging and interesting group to work in or a bottomless dungeon with lava-dwelling crocodiles that eat children all day.
These views differ dramatically because the merits of the group depend on your goals going into investment banking.
If your lifelong ambition is to work at KKR or Blackstone doing leveraged buyouts of industrial or retail companies, no, FIG investment banking is not the place to be.
But if you’re interested in the most different sector in IB, you want constant deal flow, and you want to advise banks, insurance firms, and other financial companies, nothing beats FIG.
To explain why, let’s start with the key definitions, setting, and dramatis personae:
