Bulge bracket

World's largest investment banks Most "bulge bracket" banks maintain central offices in New York City, one of the three key global financial hubs alongside London and Hong Kong. Bulge bracket banks are the world's largest global investment banks, serving mostly large corporations, institutional investors and governments. The descriptor "bulge bracket" comes from the way investment banks are listed on the "tombstone", or public notification of a financial transaction, where the largest advisors on investment banking operations (mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, or debt issuance) are listed first. The designation of a bulge bracket bank is primarily based on the bank's financial advisory business, as opposed to sales and trading. Overview 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 (CDS) in the 1990s, collateralized debt obligations (CDO) in the 2