Organizational Structure
Investment banking is split into front office, middle office, and back office activities. While large service investment banks offer all lines of business, both sell side and buy side, smaller sell side investment firms such as boutique investment banks and small broker-dealers focus on investment banking and sales/trading/research, respectively.
Investment banks offer services to both corporations issuing securities and investors buying securities. For corporations, investment bankers offer information on when and how to place their securities on the open market, an activity very important to an investment bank's reputation. Therefore, investment bankers play a very important role in issuing new security offerings.
Read more about this topic: Investment Banking
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