SSB overtakes Merrill as prestigious place to work - staff survey

SSB, ranked seventh last year, leapfrogged Merrill Lynch (in 4th place), CSFB (5th) and Fidelity (6th) in this year's survey of financial services employees in the US.

SSB received plaudits for being "friendly", "entrepreneurial", "open-minded" and a "meritocracy". It was also said to have an excellent graduate training course.

Employees at 62 financial services firms were asked to rank employers on a scale of 1-10 according to prestige. Ranking one's own employer was forbidden. Vault said it received 330 responses in all.

Comments about different banks (in which respondents could describe their own firm) included a complaint that office politics dominated the culture at CSFB, while UBS Warburg was "relaxed but diligent". Deutsche Bank was described as "less intense" than other banks.

SSB's rising prestige comes despite questions over the company's role in setting up off- balance sheet operations for the collapsed energy company Enron, and an investigation into conflicts of interest surrounding Jack Grubman, its former telecoms analyst.