Boutique investment bank

A boutique investment bank is a non-full service investment bank that specializes in at least one aspect of investment banking, generally corporate finance, although some banks are retail in nature, such as Charles Schwab. Of those involved in corporate finance, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring and reorganizations are their primary activities. Due to their smaller size, capital raising engagements are usually done on a best-efforts basis.

Boutique investment banks generally work on smaller deals involving middle-market companies, typically less than a billion dollars in revenues, and usually assist on the sell-side in mergers and acquisitions transactions. In addition, they sometimes specialize in certain industries such as media, health care, industrials, technology or energy. Some banks may specialize in certain types of transactions, such as or mergers and acquisitions, or restructuring and reorganization. Typically, boutique investment may have a limited number of offices and may specialize in certain geographic regions, thus the moniker, 'regional investment bank'.

During 2014, The Financial TimesNew York Times, and The Economist all published favorable articles regarding the growing trend of corporations to hire boutique investment banks. Reasons cited included their absence of conflicts, independence, and skill of one or a relative few individuals. The discrediting of traditionally conflicted Wall Street Investment Banking firms, especially those listed as Full-Service or Conglomerates on the List of Investment Banks, due to their role in the creation or exacerbation of the Great Financial Crisis is cited as a primary reason for the ascendancy of these boutique firms. However, advances in technology which permit the outsourcing of all non-core aspects of the firm have also been cited as a cause of this David versus Goliath phenomenon.

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