Comprised of the largest investment banks and underwrite the majority of the world's transactions.
Their clients usually are:
- large corporations
- governments
- institutional investors
They provide advisory and financial banking services. Also offered is marketing, research as well as market making.
Over the last few decades, these banks were involved in the creation of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), credit default swaps (CDS), and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). These days they are the ones creating carbon emission trading and insurance linked products.
These are the banks that serve as the primary dealers for US Treasuries.
There is no official list nor is there any distinction for getting in. A number of outfits offer lists that provide names of banks that all can fit into the category.
Corporate Finance Institute in Canada named these as the bulge bracket banks in 2020:
- Bank of America
- Barclays
- Citigroup
- Credit Suisse
- Deutsche Bank
- Goldman Sachs
- JPMorgan Chase
- Morgan Stanley
- UBS