Credit Research Poll 1998: Pioneers in their field

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Credit Research Poll 1998: Pioneers in their field

Banks are building up their European credit research in the run up to Emu. Teams are being bolstered and specialists hired. But who is getting it right? The first ever poll of European credit research gives investors the chance to decide. SBC Warburg, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan all did well, writes Brian Caplen. The poll was conducted by Rebecca Dobson.

Credit Research Poll 1998: Results

Credit Research Poll 1998: Methodology


SBC Warburg Dillon Read came first overall in Euromoney's trail-blazing European credit-research poll but Merrill Lynch swept the board in individual categories, coming top in 11 out of 13 tables. Other banks that performed well were JP Morgan, which came second, and Deutsche Bank, which came fourth.

The fact that SBC Warburg Dillon Read won the overall poll and Merrill Lynch triumphed in individual sections is explained by the houses' different approaches. SBC takes a global approach to credit research, not identifying with any particular sector and sending its main research product, Credit Advisor containing analysis of North America, Europe and Asia, to a geographical spread of investors.

By contrast, Merrill Lynch, a pioneer of credit research in Europe, began its operations with a geographical split but is gradually moving towards sectoral analysis as practised in the US where credit research is more developed. So far the European market is not large enough to support credit analysts dedicated to one sector and they tend to cover several. Meanwhile, emerging markets remain a sector in their own right.

"We began to migrate slowly from a regional to a sectoral approach as the high-yield market started developing," says Richard Deutsch, Merrill's co-head of European credit research.


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