NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - November 13, 2008) - In a year that saw the greatest shake-up in
the financial services industry in decades and the disappearance or
impending demise of some of Wall Street's most familiar names, Merrill
Lynch & Co. skyrockets from fourth place to first in Institutional
Investor's annual ranking of the best sales forces in the U.S.
In September, Merrill agreed to be acquired by Bank of America, this year's
11th-place firm. The deal is expected to be completed in January.
The Lehman Brothers sales squad, which moved to Barclays Capital in
September after its parent company acquired some of Lehman's North American
assets, holds steady in second place.
JPMorgan Securities, which acquired last year's top-ranked firm, Bear
Stearns Cos., in May, finishes in third place.
The biggest gainer among the top ten firms is the sales team at Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co., which leaps from No. 10 to No. 6.
The 2008 All-America Sales Team rankings are derived from Institutional
Investor's annual All-America Research Team survey. The sales portion of
the survey provides rankings across 13 broad industry groups/specialist
sales categories and 10 sales performance attributes.
This year's top ten firms, ranked on the basis of their U.S. sales forces,
are:
1. Merrill Lynch
2. Barclays Capital
3. JPMorgan Securities
4. Citi
5. UBS
6. Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
7. Goldman, Sachs & Co.
8. Morgan Stanley
9. Credit Suisse
10. Deutsche Bank Securities
To determine the best sales teams in the U.S., Institutional Investor
surveyed portfolio managers, buy-side analysts, directors of research,
chief investment officers and other investment professionals at 506 firms
managing U.S. equities.
A total of 46 firms are ranked this year; the top 25 are published. To view
the complete results, please visit our web site,
www.iimagazine.com.
For information regarding additional industry category and performance
attribute rankings and other detailed reports, please contact Alyssa Walker
at (212) 224-3677 or via e-mail:
awalker@iiresearchgroup.com.
Contact Information: Contact:
Alyssa Walker
212-224-3677
awalker@iiresearchgroup.com