Blog · Board and management reporting · Investment banking
Why a bank's league table position by product describes the market and not its clients, how to compute the bank's rank within each covered client's own fee wallet from public deal data and the fee ledger, the clients where the bank is top-three in the market and fifth at the client, the sector teams whose client ranks lag their market ranks, and the list of clients where one product mandate would move the bank from fifth to second.
A bank's head of coverage reads the league tables and sees a top-three franchise. Its clients, one by one, rank it fifth, because their wallets are spread nothing like the market's. Public deal data and the fee ledger compute the rank at each client, and the gap to the rank above says which single mandate would move it. This guide sets out the client rank, the sector view, and the list.
Per covered client, per period:
Estimated fees paid to each bank, from deals × fee assumptions; the bank's own from its ledger Client rank = the bank's position in that ordering Fee gap to the rank above
Per sector team:
Median client rank across covered clients, against the market rank in the sector's products
Client identifiers only.
the bank's own fees per client = fee ledger; every covered client has a rank or is marked unestimated
Private clients with no public deals are unestimated, listed, not ranked at zero.
| Client | Fee wallet | Bank's fees | Bank's rank | Rank above | Fee gap to rank above | Product that would close it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2207 | $48m | $19m | 1 | |||
| 4471 | $62m | $6m | 5 | 4: $9m | $3m | One DCM mandate at $4m |
| 9034 | $21m | $8m | 2 | 1: $10m | $2m | One ECM at $3m |
| 1187 | $35m | $2m | 7 | 6: $4m | $2m | One advisory at $6m |
Client 4471 is a fifth-place relationship at a client the bank calls a core account, and one debt mandate moves it to fourth. Client 9034 is one equity deal from first.
| Sector team | Market rank, core products | Median client rank, covered clients | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrials | 3 | 2 | Coverage converts the franchise |
| Technology | 2 | 5 | Market position not reaching clients |
| Healthcare | 4 | 4 | In line |
Technology is second in the market and fifth at its own clients. The franchise is winning deals at clients the team does not cover, and losing at the ones it does.
Clients where the fee gap to the rank above is one mandate's fee, ranked by wallet. It is the coverage banker's pitch priority for the year, with the product named.
League table as the coverage measure. The market's view, not the client's.
Fee assumptions unstated. The rank cannot be defended.
Private clients at zero. Unestimated is not last.
Rank without the gap. Fifth is a fact; three million dollars is a plan.
Mapped once, the deal data, the assumptions, the fee ledger and the coverage file produce the client ranks, the gaps, the sector view and the list every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The investment banking page describes the setup, and the fee wallet guide covers the wallet the rank is computed within.
From public deal data: every deal the client did in the period, the banks on each, and a fee assumption per product and size band, stated. Summed per bank, ordered. The bank's own fees from its ledger replace the assumption for its own line. It is an estimate, labelled, and it ranks reliably.
Because clients concentrate. A client that does most of its debt with one house and its M&A with another has two number-ones and everyone else far behind, whatever the market table says. The client rank is what the coverage banker is measured on by the client.
The estimated fees the client paid the bank ranked one place above, less what it paid this bank. Where the gap is one mandate's fee, one win moves the rank. That is the list.