Banking Finance

For undergrads and MBA students, the news that they have been selected for an interview at an investment bank comes with both excitement and dread. A position as an analyst or associate in corporate finance can be the first step towards a highly successful and highly lucrative career. Investment banking interviews, however, can be some of the most intimidating interviews out there, so let’s take a look at how to get prepared.

 

 

Before we jump into interview practice mode, we should take a step back and think about how we want to come across in the interview. In short, investment banking candidates should come off as bright, confident and likeable.

 

In the final cut of selecting a hire, investment banks have already determined which candidates are smart and capable, so the decision comes down to who they like the best. So in addition to knowing a thing or two, candidates must remember to come across as a fun person to work with as well.

 

Know Your Story

 

Like any interview, candidates should have stories prepared about their lives that discuss their past, present and future. These are great answers for the standard questions:

 

“Tell me about yourself.” Or “Walk me through your résumé.”

“Why are you interested in investment banking or this firm?”

“Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?”

 

Candidates are highly likely to receive these or similar questions in any interview, and having succinct, practiced answers to them will give the impression of a polished candidate.

 

Your past story should highlight events that have qualified you for or gotten you interested in investment banking. Your present story should demonstrate why you want the particular position, how it is a logical step from where you are coming from and perhaps touch on where you hope the position will lead.

 

Your future story should discuss how investment banking will lead to where you want to go. Good future ambitions might be a managing director position in investment banking, a principle at a private equity firm, a CFO or perhaps and entrepreneur. In any case, you should communicate that those are long-term ambitions and you look forward to the experiences you’ll have in the position you’re interviewing for.

 

Know the Industry and Firm

 

Where investment banking interviews begin to get trickier is that firms will expect you to know what you’re getting into. If you confuse an equity analyst position with an analyst position in corporate finance, for example, you will not make it any further in the process.

 

You should understand the major divisions within an investment bank — sales & trading, corporate finance, research, etc. You should understand the hierarchy of positions within corporate finance — analyst, associate, vice president, managing director — and what each position does.

 

At the macro level, you need to understand the major differences between bulge bracket investment banks, middle market and boutique investment banks. You should also have a good answer for why you would prefer one type over another (and be sure that you prefer the type you’re interviewing with).

 

You should also understand the particular expertise that your firm has — transaction types or business sectors where it is active. Find some recent transactions that the firm has completed and be able ask smart questions about some of them.

 

You may be asked if there are any other firms or companies that you are interviewing with. If you are interviewing with other investment banks, you can be honest and say that you’re taking the opportunity to get to know the investment banking landscape. You want to communicate that you’re most interested in the firm you are speaking with and be able to give good reasons why.

 

Most banks will see it as a plus that you are interviewing elsewhere and may be more inclined to try to hire you. If you don’t have other interviews with banks, be sure to network and talk to people at other banks. If you can respond that you’ve at least been doing some networking in the industry, you’ll come across as a stronger candidate.

 

Know Your Financial Models

 

Candidates should also know what they’ll be working on when they come to investment banking. Having a basic understanding of pitches, deal execution and the ebb and flow of the corporate finance office is important.

 

To that point, you should also be familiar with some of the financial models you will likely be using — discounted cash flow, comparable companies analysis, precedent transactions analysis (sometimes called M&A comps) and LBO analysis.

 

Understanding how these models work and the theory behind them will help you to answer a lot of the technical questions that might get thrown at you in an interview. Know the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and how to calculate the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Know how to un-lever a beta.

 

Know the Marketplace

 

Be sure to get up to speed on financial markets. If you can read financial news regularly and follow the reports of an economist or two, you’ll be prepared to answer questions that might get thrown at you about the markets:

 

“Where do you see interest rates headed over the next six months and why?”

“Where did the Dow close yesterday?”

“Do you have any stocks that you follow? Tell me about them.”

 

Brain Teasers

 

Another type of question you may encounter in an investment banking interview is a brain teaser. These questions are meant to catch you off guard and see how your mind works.

 

“How many golf balls will fit inside Yankee Stadium?”

 

You should be able walk through your thought process and come to a logical answer, even if it’s not the right one. You could say:

 

A golf ball is a little over two inches in diameter, so you could fit about five across in one foot of space or 125 in a cubic foot. It’s about 400 feet from home plate to center field, so Yankee Stadium is about one thousand feet long.

 

It’s shape is like a half sphere, so you could use the formula for the volume of a sphere — four thirds pie r cubed — divided by two to calculate the volume in feet. Then you multiply by 125 to figure out how many golf balls would fit.

 

That would be an adequate answer to a brain teaser. If any of your assumptions are wrong, it doesn’t matter as much as your logic. Get out a piece of paper during the interview and write out your assumptions if you need to. Get a hold of a list of brain teaser questions and have someone practice with you.

 

Ask Good Questions

 

Before the interview is over, you should always ask some good questions. There has been a lot of change in the investment banking landscape, so there are lots of great questions to ask:

 

“How has the merger with such-and-such firm gone?”

“How has the role of private equity changed since the financial crisis?”

“Do you foresee a surge in M&A activity in any of the industries you work with?”

 

There are many more questions out there. You will usually be given an opportunity to ask questions, and this is your chance to take control and show that you’re prepared. Write some smart questions out before the interview and take them with you. No matter what questions get thrown at you, you can at least demonstrate that you can ask smart questions — a valuable skill in investment banking.

 

Final Touches

 

When you finish the interview, be sure to smile and thank the firm for talking with you. Try to get a hold of business cards and send thank you emails when you get home.

 

For on-site interviews, be sure to treat everyone you encounter with respect including administrative assistants, analysts and associates. Even analysts may have the opportunity to comment in the hiring process of associates, so it’s important to make a good impression on everyone.

 

Be patient with the hiring process. Ask about the firm’s hiring timeline and respect it. Don’t follow up until after their deadline has past.

 

Investment banking interviews can be some of the toughest you will come across in your career, so be sure to take preparation seriously. Focus on coming across as a bright, confident and likeable candidate, and you will put yourself in the best position to get hired.

 

Want to learn about comparable companies analysis and see a sample model? Visit Finance Ocean. Or try taking a finance quiz!

 

 

Again about investment financing of the banks. As practice shows, long-termed financing of programs doesn’t take place spontaneously, but it means analyzing and control of current activities of the enterprises. For satisfaction of such requests, unfortunately, not every enterprise appeared to be ready. There, where all these requests are satisfied, banks become active participants in processing plans of strategy and financial provision of investment activities of the enterprises.

A special attention is required by such direction of the activities of commercial banks, as project financing is, which, to our mind, requires administration and financial support from the government, we mean the condition, that for effective salvation of investment problems it is necessary to create finance-industrial groups, and holding unions, which, in its turn, represents initial form of forming thick financial capital at the market and confluence of bank capital to the industrial one.1 This will give rise to the growth of investment volume in the economy and growth of effectiveness of capital investments. Of course, creation of such unions will be actually supported by commercial banks, but this is interrupted by such condition, that groups created today provide this activity in unregistered form and nobody is interested in their registration. This is supported by incomplete logistic, slow development rates of the institute of private property, interruptions in realization of agrarian reforms, provision of accounting calculations of financial structures in incomplete form and existence of separate statements working opposite to the creation of holding unions in the low about industry. All mentioned above may be solved immediately, by processing special low about investment activity and on the basis of its setting by the parliament in a short period of time.

It must be mentioned, that there are enough conditions for widening financial investments in the economy from the bank side because of the existence of free cash means. It is important, that these financial resources were influxed and to create a system of rational organization of purposeful usage, which must be expressed by processing of the investment policy. Here an important meaning belongs to the investment policy and correct definition of tactics.

What problems are there in front of the banks? It is also to be mentioned, that commercial banks have numbers of problems while realization of their investment activities, which prevent their normal functioning. We mean the banks, working on financing investment projects, in fact, represent only one unit in the system of private institutions. We consider following to be preventing conditions of their activities:

· Existence of marketing center of the investment projects, a coordinating organ in the country scale, which would play a function of regulator in the financial provision of the investment projecting;

· Unacceptability o the information about position of a potential borrower or investment institution;

· Refusal of creation of deposit web;

· Low level of development of the investment funds existed today;

· Absence of state investment bank, total specific organ of financing investment activity and, consequently, spontaneous distribution of the functions of investment banks working abroad under the conditions of market economics among Georgian commercial banks.

It must be also mentioned, that there are many economical factors, which may influence negatively upon realization of investment processed by the banks and nobody can define beforehand nontransiency of expected risk danger of these factors. Herewith, widening of working sphere in the investment activity of commercial banks objectively requires: giving more independence and rights to the commercial banks, growth of effectiveness of long-term investments and growth of incomes, relatively with those received from short-term financial operations, fastening of this process, ll kinds of supports from the side of the government and finally, further statement of trustfulness and firmness of the activities of banking system.

About necessities of providing structure institutional reforms in the country. For guaranteeing firmness of banking activities structure-institutional reforms, min goal of which is preparation for new stage of development of banking field, come to the first place. Necessity of the mentioned reforms is conditioned by the position of financial market of the country. New institutions, as mentioned in the works of D. Nort – the laureate of Nobel Premium, are formed in the case when the society sees the possibility of making profit, which is impossible during active institutional system. Maximal investment activities of banks are possible during many-fielded system o a financial market. This is a result of logical development of competition, as it solves problems of optimal usage of financial resources. Exactly this many-fielded character reduces and stops crisis in the country.

Many-fielded character of the banking system is characteristic to the most part of developed countries (the USA, countries of western Europe, Japan) and also for the countries having transitional economics, which applied for firm economical growth in the last decimal (China, Poland, Brazil and others). Exactly this many fielded banking system gives possibilities for using various types and forms of financial service in economics by credit department.

In this system the state creates various mechanisms of artificial reduction of competition among financial organizations. An evident example of this is separation of credit institutions into commercial and investment-credit institutions in the USA, also reduction of the bans of countries in the sphere of realization of many year credit investments and separation of state bank into separate category.

About development of small-scale business in Georgia. Creation of advantage regime for small-scaled business, in the first place, regulates creation of competition able outer conditions of the investment activity, which must be definitely foreseen in the activities of the country’s banking system. It must also be mentioned, that according to the development and improvement of the economy in the future, perhaps, such activities may not be needed, but under the conditions of transitive economics their importance may not be specially noticed. It is natural, that many-fielded financial sector is formed only under the equal conditions of competition, as there is reason-resulted, reverse-influencing relation. Mentioned relation between many-fielded financial sector and competition is expressed by that it helps creation of advantage regime for the investment activity being in the position of an embryo and its further development.

Briefly about state regulation of the investment process. According to the many-fielded principle of the financial market, the state must work out such a system of regulating investment activity, which guarantees “peaceful” coexistence of various financial institutions notwithstanding their size and specialization. Banks of every category must “act” in their marketing “sphere”, while regulation of banks of different levels from the state is stated according to the rules of regulation. Privately, to our mind, it is important to point out and regulate activity spheres of those banks, which use a capital of governmental organs. Under the conditions of many-fielded system of a financial market competition carries “fair” character and this is why such system is much firmer. Privately, in case of many-fielded system, under the conditions of concrete fight, while financing concrete state programs by forming a system of specialized state banks usage of state resources is possible more effectively. In this case objective usage of lobbing of state resources from the side of commercial banks is not allowed. For example, in Germany realization of state projects of ecological, agrarian, building and other fields are provided by specialized commercial banks. There are specialized credits in the banking system of other developed countries (Japan, Italy, France and so on) too. Such practice significantly reduces danger of incorrect usage of state resources under the conditions of competition fight.

One of the most important factors, which degrade effective development of real sector of the economy, is the irrelevance of the needed financial capital for the regional services. Basic volume of financial resources from the enterprises is accumulated in the center. Such situation is in a way justified for the state, but it is absolutely insoluble in relation with the private companies.

According to the various estimations, regional banks control not more, than 20-30% of inflow of financial resources of the regional enterprise, and this seriously degrades development of the local banks and enterprises. Thus, for solving problems about lack of resources for crediting real sector of a small economics of regional banks, question related with it, must be discussed in relation with outflow of financial resources from the region. Solving of these problems by administrative activities is impossible, processing of appropriate economical activities is needed. We mean the condition, that together with the growth of the share of local budgetary tax income, it is important to define responsibilities of the budgets of municipal creations in the development of regional economics. Thus, financial federalism is that necessary condition, which guarantees, from one side, formation of balanced market of financial service, and, from nother, further development of the investment activities on the basis of appropriate legislative base.

What does a financial federalism bring to the financial market? Creation of equal conditions for the competition under the conditions of financial federalism will naturally lead us to the formation of many-fielded system of the financial market. Such process also gives rise to the creation of thick financial centers on the basis of the existed and newly formed banks. Thus, development of regional banks within the bounds of the conception of banking industry development, gives rise to the growth of financial potential o regional economics. At the modern stage conditions of development of bank branch sphere are being widened more and more. Today banks mostly provide sources of basic financial capital inflow in the way of “region-center”, after transition to the real federalism many-fielded banks transform into the banks providing sources for financial capital outflow among the regions.

It also must be mentioned, that it is important to grow the importance of banking business, which must be expressed by forming town and country credit relations, mutual crediting and insurance societies, and loan-constructing associations. All these must be foreseen in Georgia in the process of banking system development and, accordingly, an adequate logistic must be prepared for advantage conditions for development of small and middle banking businesses, because formation of effective financial system in the regional scale is absolutely impossible. Therewith, if we take into account the fact, that the investment portfolio in the structure of joint assets of Georgian commercial banks did not overcome 1% for the first of January of 1999, and 4% for the first of January of 2005, this speaks for the tendencies of growing portfolio investments.

Attraction of foreign investments. Globalization and internationalization of the world’s industrial relations gives rise to the growth of the role of foreign investments, as financing investment activities.

Essence and types of foreign investments. Foreign investments are hose capital resources, which are taken out of one country and invest abroad in this or that industrial activity, for the purpose of making industrial profit or receiving percents. Foreign investments may be realized in various forms. While analyzing this form we can use distinguished methods of approach for classification of the investments, which men their separation from each-other according to the objects, purposes, terms of investments, forms of property on the investment resources, risks and other signs. Herewith, the necessity of specific of foreign investments defines statement of number of classification features for the investments of this type.

For example, foreign investments may be state, private and combined according to the property forms on the investment resources.

State investments are those resources of state budget, which are directed abroad by decision of the government or inter governmental organizations. These resources may have the face of state resources, credits, grants ot support.

Private (nongovernmental) investments are resources of private investors placed into those objects, which are placed out of the bounds of given country.

They call combined investments joint placement abroad of the resources of the private investors and the government.

According to the character of usage, foreign investments may be industrial and loan.

Industrial investments are direct or indirect ones placed into the business of this or that type for taking some rights for making profit of dividend kind. Loan investments are related with the distribution of resources under the loan condition, for the purpose of receiving percent.

While analyzing foreign investments, apportioning of straight, portfolio and other investments is of a great importance. Movement of foreign investments according to the international currency funds and methodology of the countries’ taxation balances are reflected in this section.

Briefly about legislative situation of the foreign investments in Georgia.  As shown in the chapters above, “investments” conceptually express long-term placement of the capital of solid quantity for the purpose of making profit. According to the Georgian low “about support and guarantees of the investment activities” investment is considered to be the valuable of every property and intellectual kind or the right, which is invested for the purpose of making possible profit and is used in the industrial activities provided on the Georgian territory. It may lean upon as inner (inside country), so outer (foreign) sources.

Here a great attention is paid to the investment surrounding (climate), which means real conditions existed in the country for the investments. It defines intensive attraction or declining foreign capital for the long-term investments. I.e. according to the concrete condition, investment surrounding may be as advantage, so in advantage, which is foreseen by every investor before making concrete step. Fundamental analyzing of the investment climate existed in the country and foreseeing risk factors are the basic goal f every investor.

Thus, it is definitely difficult to say, is present situation in Georgia good or bad. It would be more correct if we say that there are as advantage (stimulating), so preventing conditions in the country.

Foreign investments in Georgia are prevented by constitution, by the low “about support and guarantees of the investment activities” and by two-side agreement about investment encouragement and protection. Today Georgia has signed agreements with more then 23 countries about mutual support and protection and with 111 countries – about avoiding two-side taxation.

Legislative foundations and guarantees of their protection of realization of local and foreign investments in Georgia are defined by the low about guarantees and support of the investment activities, according to which foreign and local investors use equal rights. Privately, while realization of investment and industrial activities rights and guarantees of the foreign investors must not be less then those of the local juridical and physical persons.

According to the same low, physical and juridical person, also international organization, which provide investments in Georgia are considered to be the subject of the investment activity.

It must be mentioned, that after paying taxation and compulsory payments, a foreign investor gains right for unreduced repatriation abroad of the profit received from investments and other cash resources, and this may reduced only on the basis of the low – according to the court decision in case of bankrupting, crime or not fulfillment of civil obligations. Herewith, foreign investor has right to take abroad the property being under his/her property.

Georgian low “about supporting and guarantees of the investment activity”. Positive and negative sides. Georgian low “about supporting and guarantees of the investment activity” foresees as preventing and reductions in the sphere of providing investments, also the guarantee of protecting them, which means untouchable character of the investments and compensation in case of taking away investments within the bounds of the mentioned low. The compensation, which is given to the investor in case of taking investments off him/her, must conform to the real market value of the taken investments for that moment, when the taken off takes place. The compensation must be granted without any hamper and it must concern that loss of the investor from the moment of taking off till paying of the compensation mount.

It must be mentioned, that a new legislative act, which somehow worsens conditions of investments stated by this low, isn’t spread on already realized investments, ten years after its setting. In such case the investor realizes his/her activity according to the actual low until the new one is put down to the action.

A quarrel between foreign investor and state organ, if the method of its decision is not defined by dual agreement, is solved at Georgian court or in the international center of the investment quarrel. In the case, if the quarrel is not discussed in the international center of investment quarrel, the foreign investors have right to apply for the additional institute of the center or any other international arbitrageur organ, which is founded according to the rules set by the arbitrageur and international agreements of the commission of international trade low of the United Nations. Arbitrageur court of international trade palate in Georgia functions from December 11, in 2000.

According to the statistical showing, the most attractive sectors for the foreign investors were production of oil and gas, energetic, telecommunications and food industry according to the statistic showings during last years. Among largest investors there are such companies as Frontera Resources Corporation (USA), which has invested more then 30 million US dollars into Georgian oil production; Metromedia international – 40 million US dollars of investments in telecommunication; Pernod Ricard (France) – with the investments in alcohol production; AES (USA) – investments in distribution and generation of electro power.

By comparing showings we learn, that according to the hydro energetic potential, Georgia significantly overcomes such countries rich in the so-called “White Coal”, as France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Romania and others. Though practically, less then 15% of real possibilities are used, and this gives large perspectives to the foreign investments in Georgia.

The fact is to be mentioned, that the foreign companies are interested in the process of privatization of state property, which is one of the most important part of the realized economical reform in Georgia. The fact, that foreign capital is invested in more then 100 Georgian companies proves this.

For influxing foreign capital into Georgia a positive surrounding is created by the existence of advantage conditions for development of such reduced fields, as oil production, black and colored metallurgy, separate kinds of mechanical engineering, mountain chemical industry, bottling of fresh and mineral water, production of building and decorating materials, tea, wine, fruit, citrus, wool, tobacco, industry of their refining and others.

Though foreign companies provide capital investments into these fields, for example, in agrarian and food industries, but it is provided in a very little quantity.

Factors of disadvantage surrounding in Georgia. Among those factors, which give rise to the disadvantage climate for influxing foreign investments in Georgia following are to be mentioned:

· Political strain and not quite seldom facts of lobbing business with unacceptable methods by the representatives of executive and legislative government, this takes away the basis of healthy competition as in common, so among the investors;

· Violation of the territorial integrity of the country, ethno conflicts, Not controlling of Abkhazia and South Alania (Smachablo), difficulties with protecting state boards, which spreads widely the door to contraband and prevents growth of risk factors of  influxing of as native, so foreign investments;

· From the beginning of 90s of last year, analogue to the countries of post soviet space, sharp economical, financial, energetic, food, ecological and other crises developed in Georgia for not ordinal conditions, gave rise to the backwardness of our country’s economy for some decimals. It would be enough to say, that a level of whole European product consisted only 36.8% in 1999, compared with 1991. This was the lowest showing in whole post Soviet space. Such destroying of economical functioning, evidently, reduces requests on foreign investments and significantly restricted their influxing;

For the purpose of statement of the level of spreading negative occasions mentioned above and processing appropriate recommendations World Bank and European bank of reconstruction and development provided joint research, where they learned 22 countries having transitional economics. According to these researches they made a conclusion, that a showing of “state obedience” (of corrupting, taking into hands) in these countries consists average 21%. It must be mentioned, that same showing consists 24% in Georgia. What about average level of administrative corruption, it reaches up to 3%, while in Georgia – 4.3%.Iit is natural, that created situation fears foreign investors and prevents influxing of their capital in a large quantity in our countries.

According to the experience of last years, giving state guarantees to the foreign investments is more difficult. Though, if it were easy to achieve, it would not be enough for the foundation, as Georgian state doesn’t stand on the firm positions, for making n investor sure in stability of the country. For comparing let’s discuss investment surrounding of Czech Republic, privately, that part, according to which investment logistic of the country foresees from April 1998 such scheme of advantages, which concerns taxation, custom and those of definite regions, also, grants for creation working places and so on . According to the mentioned analyze following is cleared out, that equal priorities in using advantages are given as to the foreign investors, so to the local ones. At the same time, if we pay attention to the showing of inflow of straight foreign investments into Czech Republic by years, we’ll see, that after the quantity of straight foreign investments had been reduced in 1997 (1300 billion USD) relatively to 1996 (1428 billion USD), in 1998 it was doubled and consisted 2720 billion USD, and in 1999 equaled to 5108 billion USD. One of the stimulating factors of the mentioned progress must be considered involving a system of advantages activated in Czech Republic from 1998.

Unfortunately, there is not a firm system of foreign investments and insurance yet in Georgia, which would significantly help the process of making investment surrounding healthy and inflow of a large amount of investments from abroad.

Factors preventing development of the country economy – significantly wide scales of shadow economics and corruption, so-called distribution of influence spheres by clans, setting of a barrier in this or that spheres of business especially prevent, from one side, development of local business and, from another – influxing of large-scale international investments.

How to use international legislative norms in the Georgian investment activities. Thus, a lot of problems (complex of problems) are formed in the process of attracting and using of foreign investments, and they are regulated by legislative norms.

Whole logistic regulating foreign investments may be grouped in the following way:

1.  special norms;

2.  total civil norms;

3.  norms of international agreement.

To special logistic in the first place belong special logistic and its following acts of quite large quantity.

Civil logistic regulates and conditions relations of foreign capital and enterprises participating with numerous counteragents. We mean various kinds of agreements, questions of representation, researching questions and so on. Thus, civil logistic is used in the case, when regulation of the activities of foreign investors is not provided with the special one, for its tight direction.

Norms of international agreements is the part of the country’s legislative system. International agreement gains special importance during international economical relations. Activation of the mentioned norm is basically spread on attracting and usage of foreign investments; following legislative acts belong to this sphere:

1. International dual agreement of mutual protection and encouragement of the investments. Dual agreements of foreign investments are discussed in this sphere as additional guarantees of the norms foreseen in national lows. Capital exporting countries and their investors consider that protection of foreign investment is more effectively solved in the way of inter-protection and encouragement of investments.

2.  International two-sided agreement for avoiding double taxation. Such agreement usually defines sources of income – profit and property, which is taxed in the country without any reduction. It is being set, which incomes (profit) and property may be taxed in the country – with some reductions and what source of incomes may be set free from taxations;

3. Many-sided conventions. From those international conventions, which regulate relations related with the investments, two are important – Seoul Convention about stating many-sided agencies of protecting investment guaranties (1985) and Washington Convention about solving quarrels (1965).

Involving of many-sided system of investment guarantees was outrun by creation and development of state system of insuring capital export in the developed countries.

Before making decision about placement of sources by the foreign investor, one of the important conditions is – guarantees of security and protection of capital investments in that country, where investments are inflown, the state takes obligations – to guarantee protecting of foreign property, guarantee of rights and interests of the foreign investor, guarantee privacy of realization of investment activity of the country territory. Thus, under the conditions of strict competition, state forms as much liberal regime for foreign investors as possible.

What difficulties are there in Georgia from the point of attracting foreign investments? Difficulties of definite kind are expressed today in the developing countries and, accordingly, in Georgia in the affair of attracting foreign capital and its effective usage. We my name following reasons for this:

· Regulation of the activities of foreign investors is getting difficult with the absence of stabile legislative base;

· Worsening of material position of the most part of the country population gives rise o the growth of social tension;

· There still are criminal and corruption in some sectors of industrial activities;

· Inappropriate level of infrastructure development; also of transport, communications, system of telecommunication, hotel services, roads and so on;

· High level of unsteadiness of total politics, privately, instability of logistic and court system;

· Absence of joint state investment policy in the business of attracting foreign investments;

Herewith, notwithstanding the difficulties named above, the country owns great potential, what may be the subject for interesting foreign investors. Privately:

· Rich and comparatively cheap resort and tourist resources;

· A large inner undeveloped market;

· Richest reserves of mineral and curing waters;

· Comparatively cheap qualified labor  force;

· Quite high staff of marketing development, which can master new technologies of production successfully and fast;

· Absence of serious competition by Georgian producers;

· Current process of privatization and possibilities of foreign investors in it;

· Possibility for making high profit very fast.

Thus, we can make a conclusion that, compared with the countries of Western Europe, notwithstanding large economical backwardness, Georgia can develop total investment activity comparatively faster, with the help of correct and effective usage of native and foreign investments.

 

Lamara Qoqiauri

Real member of the Academy of Economical Sciences of Georgia and New-York Academy of Science, Doctor of Economics, Professor

Introduction

Banking Investment or investment banking is part of the financial services industry that offers wide variety of services to corporations and organizations all over the world. The range of products and services is increasing rapidly that has made it difficult to distinguish the most important services because investment banks offer their services in different forms (Turnbull and Moustakatos, 1996) The service is an area that helps companies in funds acquisition, advising for wide range of transactions for future businesses (www.wisegeek.com).As it is clear that the investment banking deals with providing financial assistance to the companies for business matters, it is essential to ensure quality service in the area. Therefore quality assurance is the main pillar of any business including profit and nonprofit organizations, government and nongovernmental organizations as it affects the level of success in the business. The quality assurance further helps in conducting other evaluation processes like standards compliance evaluations, brand assurance evaluations, customer or guest experience evaluations, etc. which makes it essential and important in any business organization to maintain a dominant position in the industry market (www.totalqualityassuranceservices.com). In view of the importance of quality assurance, the present paper is intended to discuss the issues and importance related to banking sector particularly in investment banking.

Investment Banking

Investment banks have multilateral functions to execute in favor of various companies. The service mainly deals with companies like helping private and public corporations in issuing securities in the primary market, guarantee by standby underwriting or best efforts selling and foreign exchange management. (www.economywatch.com). Further it is committed towards providing assistance to capital markets as intermediary. These are the institutions that are regarded as counterparts of banks in the capital market in the function of intermediation in the process of resource allocation (Subramanyam, 2004, p.72)

Need for Quality Assurance in Investment Banking

Williamson (1988, p.55) stated that investment banking has been and will continue to be an increasingly intensively competitive business in order to strive in the market which is mainly dominated by the changes as part of strategy in the capital and  securities industry. The changes in the market include emergence of institutional investors, internationalization, innovative technology enabling investment banks and their customers to organize and distribute information, increasing complexity, and capital market capabilities are replacing institutional intermediating capabilities making the commercial banks increasingly active in investment banking. Quality assurances are essential in order to retain the customers on hand which shall be the top priority for any organization as they are the main source of revenue and to attract more customers with quality assistance in banking services. The assurance of quality in service sector brings the customer back to make use of the services and recommend the same to others which means increased rate of profit. Therefore quality assurance is essential in banking sector and especially in the investment banking sector.

Quality Assurance in Investment Banking

Quality Assurance is a new topic that is been applied in banking industry that has been accorded the responsibility to evaluate the performance of system and practices and also suggested changes in the existing practices to improve quality assurance. The process of evaluation regarding the quality assurance in investing banking is initiated with the identification of suitable methodology with definition of goals and objectives of the organization (www.sbp.org.pk). The process is essential in investment banking as investment banks have unique role to play in bridging the worlds as mainstream investors manly rely on the quality assurance of the investment banks (Rhyne, 2009, p.51). In view of the importance of quality assurance in the investment banks, the process is carried out to strengthen the procedure and standards at corporate level, promoting efficient utilization of available resources so that different functions are carried out in an expeditious and cost effective manner and make recommendations for enhanced customer satisfaction. Initially quality assurance will be started by following three pronged strategy i.e. (i) develop the system, (ii) document the system, and (iii) analyze the feedback and make further recommendations (www.sbp.org.pk). Quality assurance is at its best at the times of negotiation with with single investment banker and stronger when registered in traditional manner instead of shelf registration (Williamson, 1988, p.69). According to Turnbull and Moustakatos (1996) service businesses can grow in various ways by retaining the existing customers and attracting new customers through great quality and eliminating the redundancies by the way of terminating the services of unsatisfactory customers and providing  services to new customers.. Further to clarify the scope of quality assurances to the customers in investment banking, reputation of the bank is important in terms of providing advice, integration, orientation and range of products and services offered that act as the major source of retaining and attracting the customers. Investment bankers seek to cultivate an image of competence and quality which is especially important in a competitive professional service business (Eccles and Crane, 1988, p.69). Neely (1999) states that quality assurance is achieved by managing the quality assurance activities system, quality control diagnosis, innovation, improvement, inspection, quality evaluation and audit, infrastructure, assistance in product usage, recycling,  customer satisfaction, reliability, safety, product liability and environmental protection. In order to provide all the facilities mentioned hitherto, quality assurance should begin at each level purely undertaken and supported by the quality assurance team and its members (Gillman and White, 2001, p. 215).

And of late, Total Quality Management (TQM) principles are in practice in most of the successful organizations which also lays down the principles in providing qualitative services to the customer. The TQM principles designed by various researchers are being adapted by many service industries to provide quality service to its customers or clients. It is important to note that the principles are more effective in service sector organizations than in any other firms necessitating the need to integrate the principles in the investment banking to provide quality services to its customers and achieve greater customer satisfaction (Cowling and Newman, 1995). Managers are required to be sensitive to different demands and needs when developing their operational, human resources and marketing strategies with a view to improving the quality of service they offer to their customers as they are willing to pay for better premium services (Spathis, Petridou and Glaveli, 2004). The increasing expectations among the customers, existing and those coming to the bank in search for better service than others in the industry has created a competitive climate thereby laying the impetus on quality of the relationship between the customer and the institution. There are various methods which can be used to ascertain the determinants of the concept of service quality as well as quality measurement techniques (Joseph et al, 2005). Quality is an important aspect in any industry, offering products or services, to attract new customers and retain the existing ones. And providing assurance about the quality is need of the hour for every business. As investment banking is a service oriented business with most of the profits coming through the investments in businesses and acting as consultant to many businesses, it is necessary that investment banking adopt suitable techniques, theories and principles related to quality assurance for customer satisfaction and retention.

Conclusion

The banking sector is growing day by day with new and complex services offered to the customers by various banks to strive in the competitive market. The whole gamut of business is surrounded with one aspect i.e. customer service. Therefore quality is important while providing service to the customers as any soar experiences will result in loss of customers as well as business. It is mentioned that investment banks must improve and emphasize various service dimensions resulting in better quality service. However it is important to mention here that just offering qualitative service is not sufficient but to assure the same service and much better service in the coming future is necessary for the investment banking which deals in higher segment as compared to commercial banking. As mentioned earlier, apart from acting as banks, the investment banks also engage in consultancy services providing assistance in financial and company matters. Basing on this, most of the companies turn towards the banks for suggestions and providing right advice at the right times demonstrates that the bank is reliable financial adviser and is able to meet the clients expectations. Moreover it is important to provide service far better than expected by the customers during the service process by being responsive, approaching the customer to help inspiring confidence, and adopting an institutionalized approach (Turnbull and Moustakatos, 1996). Service quality is being recognized as one of the key strategic value which aims to provide better service in order to retain the existing customers by providing optimum satisfaction, opportunities for cross selling, development of customer relationships, increased sales and market shares by attracting new customers all of which ultimately enhancing the corporate image and business performance (Joseph and Stone, 2003). In view of the above benefits associated with quality assurance in various organizations and particularly in investment banking, it is an integral part of the management process to achieve the goals and objectives of the investment banks. Thus quality assurance is an important element in attracting customers or client in the investment banking sector.

 

 

We hear the term “investment bank” on a daily basis. Investment banks are vilified for their role in the financial crisis and criticized for the profits they reap and the large compensation packages for their employees. But many people have no idea what an investment bank is or what it does. Let’s take a look at the role investment banks play in the financial services industry and the economy at large.

So what is an investment bank? First of all, investment banks are very different than the commercial banks we are all familiar with. They do not take deposits like the retail bank on the corner. Instead, investment banks primarily assist in the buying, selling and issuing of securities — that is stocks, bonds and similar financial instruments.

Investment banks assist companies and institutions on “buy side” and “sell side” activities. The buy side refers to the advising of institutions concerned with buying assets and securities. Entities that engage in buy side activities include private equity funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds and proprietary trading desks. The sell side refers to a broad range of activities, including broking and dealing securities, investment banking, advisory functions and investment research.

The core functions of an investment bank include investment banking — otherwise known as corporate finance — sales and trading and research. Some larger investment banks also perform other services like investment management or merchant banking, but let’s take a closer look at the core three.

Investment Banking (Corporate Finance)

Investment banking can be a confusing term because many people use it to refer to any activities performed by an investment bank. More specifically, though, investment banking refers to assisting companies with raising capital and giving advice on mergers and acquisitions.

The corporate finance or investment banking department of an investment bank is the group that works with a company to put together an initial public offering (IPO). Or, if a company already has public stock outstanding, they might put together a follow-on offering, which is simply an additional issuance of stock shares. The corporate finance department can also help companies raise capital through private placements, which often involve securing capital from private equity groups.

Should the ownership of a company seek to sell the entire enterprise, the corporate finance department can also advise on M&A transactions. They can help identify potential buyers and negotiate a sale of the entire company. Likewise, if a company is in the market for acquiring other enterprises, this group can advise on acquisitions.

Another service that the corporate finance department of an investment bank might offer is the delivery of fairness opinions. In a fairness opinion, an investment bank will perform an analysis of a potential acquisition and render an opinion as to whether a reasonable price is being offered for the target company.

Sales and Trading

Sales and trading is perhaps the primary service that an investment bank can offer. There are often two major divisions within sales and trading — institutional and retail. The institutional division buys and sells financial products for institutional clients such as mutual funds, pension funds, etc. The retail division buys and sells financial products for retail investors. Stock brokers fall into this area.

The sales and trading department of an investment bank engages in market making. Market making involves buying and selling financial instruments in order to make an incremental profit on each trade.

Sales and trading can also engage in proprietary trading. Proprietary trading involves a special group of traders who do not work with clients. These traders take on “principal risk”, which involves buying or selling a product and does not hedge his total exposure. By managing the amount of risk on its balance sheet, an investment bank can maximize its profitability.

An investment bank’s sales and trading department also interacts with the corporate finance department on the issuance of IPOs and follow-on offerings. It is the sales and trading department that builds a book for a particular stock by calling up institutional and retail investors to judge the interest for the offering. They then price the initial sales value on the day of the offering and begin selling the new shares to their clients.

Depending on the size of an offering or the desired mix of investors for the offering, several investment banks may be involved in issuing shares to the public. This group of banks constitute the syndicate and are responsible for selling the shares involved in the offering.

Research

The research department of an investment bank is staffed by research analysts. These are the people who often appear on business news programs and talk about the performance of a particular company or stock. The role of the research department is to analyze companies and writes research reports that discuss their performance potential. These reports often include a “buy” or “sell” recommendation.

The research department on its own does not generate a lot of income. What it does do is influence trading volume, which results in more fees for sales and trading. When a research analyst changes his or her recommendation on a stock, many investors will then act on that recommendation and the sales and trading team earns more in trading fees.

There exists, however, a conflict of interest between research and other parts on the investment bank. If an investment bank were about to issue new shares of stock for a company, for example, the research analyst could put out a strong recommendation for the stock just prior to the offering, and the bank could get a better price and potential earn more fees.

Likewise, if the proprietary trading division wanted to boost the return on their holdings, they could have research analysts recommend some of the stock they held as a buy. There are a number of areas where the research department could be used to mislead investors and earn more profit for the investment bank.

To circumvent these conflicts of interests, regulators have insisted that investment banks implement a “Chinese wall” in their firms. The Chinese wall keeps information about the investment bank’s corporate finance and sales and trading activities from passing through to the research department.

A Chinese wall also exists between the corporate finance and sales and trading divisions because many corporate finance activities involve non-public information that could be used to profitably execute trading strategies.

A World without Investment Banks

Without investment banks, companies would have a much more difficult time with raising capital. Likewise, the general public would have a hard time investing their money in anything other than a savings deposit.

Without investment banks, only very large institutions or very wealthy individuals would be able to structure the same financial transactions that occur every day with an investment bank.

In short, investment banks drastically speed up the flow of capital throughout the economy and allow businesses — and our savings — to grow more quickly. As complicated as all these activities may seem, they only scratch the surface of all the intricacies of an investment bank.

But the next time you hear that some investment bank advised on the sale of a company or generated several billing dollars in trading fees, at least you’ll have an idea of what they’re talking about.

 

The field of corporate finance deals with the decisions of finance taken by corporations along with the analysis and the tools required for taking such decisions. The principle aim of corporate finance is enhancing the corporate value and at the same time reducing the financial risks of the company. In addition to this, corporate finance also deals in getting the maximum returns on the invested capital of the company. The major concepts of corporate finance are applied to the problems of finance encountered by all type of firms. Corporate finance group deals with medium and large corporate clients and offers complete solutions to meet our clients’ financial requirements. The management of corporate finance attempts to maximize the firm’s value by making investments in the projects that have a positive yield. The finance options for such projects have to be done in a proper manner.

            Achieving the goals of corporate finance requires that any corporate investment be financed appropriately. Management must therefore identify the optimal mix of financing-the capital structures that result in maximum value. Management must also attempt to match the financing mix to the asset being financed as closely as possible, in terms of both timing and cash flows. Many factors should be considered like investment objectives, policy frameworks, institutional structure, sources of financing and expenditure framework etc. There are various considerations where shareholders pay tax on dividends, companies may elect to retain earnings, or to perform a stock buyback, in both cases increasing the value of shares outstanding etc. Thus, the goal of corporate finance is the maximization of firm value. In the context of long term, capital investment decisions, firm value is enhanced through appropriately selecting and funding NPV positive investments. These investments, in turn, have implications in terms of cash flow and cost of capital.

            Investment banking is one of the most global industries and is hence continuously challenged to respond to new developments and innovation in the global financial markets. It deals with raising capital, trading in securities and managing corporate mergers and acquisitions. Investment banks earn profit from companies and governments by raising money through issuing and selling various securities. There are many investment banks operating in the field of investment banking and finance. Investment banks, or I-banks, issue securities, manage portfolios of financial assets, trade securities, help investors purchase securities, provide financial advice, and support services. Finance areas are responsible for an investment bank’s capital management and risk monitoring. By tracking and analyzing the capital flows of the firm, the Finance division is the principal adviser to senior management on essential areas such as controlling the firm’s global risk exposure and the profitability and structure of the firm’s various businesses.

            When raising capital for a firm, an investment bank is acting as an intermediary between investors and the issuer. Capital raised can come from private investors or from pools of capital obtained within the public markets. They also engage in numerous proprietary activities in the financial markets. Investment banks also provide merger and acquisition services, both on the buy and sell side of a deal. The buy side involves identifying and facilitating the acquisition of a target company, while the sell side involves taking a client company to market at auction and identifying and facilitating the sale to a high bidder or acquirer with a strong strategic fit.

            New products with higher margins are constantly invented and manufactured by bankers in hopes of winning over clients and developing trading know-how in new markets in the field of investment banking. Product coverage groups focus on financial products, such as mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance, equity, and high-grade debt. Thus, investment banking and finance can be one of the best options for your investment management and capital structuring.

The meaning of investment banking is not the financial investment in the banking sector. But in fact, investment banking is a kind of banking function which is used to help clients in creating wealth and funds. The commercial banks use this type of banking in accord with sensible and practical use of the available resources. Not only this, investment banking and people engaged in this sector also provides advice on how to transact in business they are currently in.

Through investment banking, companies can create funds in two ways. They can either draw on public funds from capital market by releasing the stock i.e. corporate finance or they can go to venture capitalists or private equities to become share holders in their company. The field of investment banking is also engaged in giving advice and consultation on how to manage various takeovers and merging i.e. [M&A] merger and acquisitions. They also provide companies with ideas on how to declare public offerings and manage their talents. The handling of mergers and acquisitions come under the corporate finance function of the investment banking. The margin between investment banking and other forms of banking has been very unclear for a long time now and for the same time; the function of this banking sector has grown to covering every field of wealth management process of corporate as well as individual persons.

Corporate Finance: this is the sector where investment banking works and supports companies the most in getting extra money. Lets take an example that a company needs more money to finance the market research of a product to-be launched to stay forward in competition. Here, investment banking can help you by getting your company’s shares sold and raising funds for you. The other way, how an investment bank can get you money is by trading in stocks on behalf of their clients.

[M&A] Merger and Acquisitions: this point doesn’t have any explanation and it can be defined only through an example. Let’s take an example of a company who is going strong in business and market and wish to buy another company just to add more authority to their name and business. Professionals from investment banking sector makes them realize that on merging; both these companies can be a great group and can acquire major part of the market and also the business. They also tell them what are the other benefits of getting merged and also what is the right time according to market conditions for both the companies to get merged into each other.

Among other important functions that investment banking sector performs, sales is the most important one. Sales persons from investment banking sector performs the tasks of a professional sales person. These sales people convince investors and develop relationships with them to sell their stock. They are also ready to provide advice relating to stocks and trading. This advice makes buying and selling of stocks and other business transactions very easy. Research programmers are present to analyze the working and if some shortcoming is seen, they also help by suggesting them the right time to transact in stocks.

Investment banking is often the top career choice for many people. The problem comes when it’s time to complete an investment banking cover letter, resume, or even complete the application form. These steps are some of the most important things you can do to get an investment banking job. If they are not completed correctly, it can cost you a very lucrative career. There are ways to make certain that does not occur.

 

However, there is help available. Helpmegetajob is a terrific website dedicated to helping people find careers in investment banking and financial services. For many people, the appeal of the banking and financial industry is strong. They know there is a lot of money to be made, but they also know it can be an exciting career, with many unexpected turns.

 

Helpmefindajob provides the services needed for you to land that dream job.  While they don’t guarantee job placement, they do furnish you with the necessary tools to make you stand out among all the other applicants to investment banking employers. There are many sections to this site and each offers you a different set of these tools.

 

One of the best things about this website is the seminars and courses. These courses are taught by leading professionals in the finance and banking industries. You will find seminars that will teach you the needed skills to find employment in the investment banking field. 

 

For example, one of the seminars deals specifically with creating an investment banking CV that will catch the attention of potential employers.  It also will show you ten tips to landing that dream job in banking and finance. You can gain an advantage over other applicants simply by creating the right first impression with employers. An investment banking cover letter that is written correctly, along with an investment banking CV, can really be the turning point for you.

 

Another popular seminar covers commodities. Even in today’s credit crunch, there are many companies that are not as affected as others. Oil companies, commodity trading houses, and utility companies are still actively recruiting personnel. This opens up an entire new area of banking and finance for you to try to get into. You will get the skills you need to apply and succeed at the interview to grab onto to this growing market.

 

One the resources page, you find free helpful tips to polishing your investment banking CV, as well as the accompanying investment banking cover letter. It’s important to note that any error in these two can often results in you not receiving an interview. Make sure they are perfect in terms of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

 

When it comes to investment banking careers, the competition can be stiff. Any advantage you can gain over the competition is helpful. Helpmegetajob will give you this advantage and more. While there are many job service websites, this one is specifically designed to help in the banking and finance field. 

 

When you consider all that Helpmegetajob offers, it just makes sense to take a few minutes and browse through the site. You may find that this is just what you have been searching for. Investment banking is a terrific opportunity when you have the right skills to get that great job.