J.P. MORGAN: THREE YEARS ON TOP OF EUROPE FIXED-INCOME RESEARCH No bank does a better job of providing insight and guidance to investors in European fixed-income securities than J.P. Morgan, which leads Institutional Investor’s All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team for a third straight year. The firm captures 17 total team positions, three more than last year and three more than Barclays, which repeats in second place even though it increases its team total by four. Bank of America Merrill Lynch climbs from fourth place to third, but that modest advance belies the firm’s stunning gains: It more than doubles its number of total team positions, from six to 13. Down one notch to No. 4 is Deutsche Bank, which picks up three spots, for a total of 12. Rounding out the top five is Morgan Stanley, which tied for fourth place last year; it increases its total by one, to seven.
Overall, the 2013 team sees a rise in total positions that is attributable in part to a jump in voter participation. The 2012 results reflected the opinions of some 550 respondents from roughly 300 institutions. This year’s ranking reflects the views of nearly 800 individuals at some 380 institutions globally that manage an estimated $6.4 trillion in European fixed-income assets. There were no changes to this year’s ballot.
To view the complete list of winning firms, click on the Leaders link located in the navigation table on the right. To view the top-ranked teams in each of the survey’s 18 sectors, click on the Best Analysts of the Year. The full list of winning teams, including those ranked second, third and runner-up, is available to subscribers only.
For information about how we compiled this ranking, click on Methodology.
The All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team is the second research ranking published this year, following last week’s All-Europe Research Team results. To see how the participating sell-side firms fare when the totals of these two surveys are aggregated, see the 2013 Top Global Research Firms: Year-to-Date.
Picking the Team To select the members of the third annual All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team, Institutional Investor sent questionnaires covering 20 investment sectors to bond specialists at leading money management firms around the world. We received responses from nearly 800 individuals at some 380 institutions globally managing an estimated $6.4 trillion in European fixed-income assets. (We keep the identity of survey participants confidential to ensure their continuing cooperation.)
Respondents vote for both individual analysts and for a firm’s entire team; these votes are combined for firms in each sector. A numerical score is produced for each firm by weighting each vote based on the respondent’s European fixed-income assets under management and on the rank awarded to the firm or individual. The numerical scores are used to determine the rankings. A team is designated runner-up when its scores falls within 35 percent of the third-teamer score. As with all of our research team surveys, voters must meet eligibility requirements and winners must achieve a minimum vote count. All ballots are subject to review by our Research Operations Group, and final results may be inspected by an independent auditor.
Typically, the analyst recognized as the leader of each winning group is either the individual designated as team leader by the firm or the analyst recognized most frequently by investors. In the High-Yield and Investment-Grade research categories, only those analysts who publish independent research as defined by the Financial Services Authority are eligible to be recognized as team leaders. No such restriction applies to team leaders in Economics & Strategy, in accordance with FSA regulations. Analysts who switched firms after October 26, 2012, are cited at their previous organizations.
We polled four High-Yield sectors, all of which produced complete results (first through third place). Of six Investment-Grade sectors polled, only four produced publishable results (all complete); Technology, Media & Telecommunications and Utilities did not receive enough votes to warrant inclusion.
All ten of the Economics & Strategy sectors delivered complete results. The 2013 All-Europe Fixed-Income Research Team ranking was compiled by Senior Research Editor Tucker Ewing, Associate Research Editor Denise Hoguet and Researchers Amy Kong, Jillian Michalek and Wilber Perez under the guidance of Research Managing Editor Thomas W. Johnson.
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