Which are the best boutique banks to work for?

We recently released our 2025 Ideal Employer report. Our 15,000 survey respondents generally chose huge global organisations as their preferred employers, such as JPMorgan, Deloitte, and BlackRock. But not every respondent chose a huge firm. Some Ideal Employers were boutiques.

Click here to join the bubble by eFinancialCareers, our new anonymous community. ✍️

Boutique investment banks have always been preferred by a small minority of our respondents. Their appeal is self-evident; pay is often high. There are opportunities for fast promotion, and the advice you get to offer clients there is impartial.

It’s difficult to define what an investment banking boutique is exactly. It can be a bank that primarily offers M&A advisory services. A boutique can also be defined as a bank that does not accept deposits from the public.

But however you define it, by our count, Rothschild is a boutique investment bank. And like in previous years, Rothschild was the Ideal Employer among boutiques. The firm performed particularly well on these qualitative statements:

• This company pays very well. (5% above the global average)
• This company offers interesting work. (4% above the global average)

Rothschild achieved more votes in our survey than second-placed Lazard, third-placed Evercore, and fourth-placed Centerview Partners combined. This was the second year that Rothschild won the boutiques category.

Rothschild is an esteemed name in the history of finance. The modern-day Rothschild & Co. is a product of the merger between N M Rothchild & Sons, the London branch of the dynasty, and Rothchild & Cie Banque, the French branch. The modern day firm employs approximately 4,600 people worldwide.

Although voters generally approved Rothschild, and considered it a well-led bank, they also saw it as an employer that lacked in both innovation and integrity.

Majid Ishaq, global head of global retail, leisure, and sport for Rothschild, said that the firm hires “the best minds”, and that juniors are provided “a broad range of learning opportunities” to build new skills and knowledge. “The business offers technical, behavioural, and experiential learning across its graduate and internship programmes,” Ishaq added. 

“Career development, inclusive leadership programmes, and long-term sponsorship” all contribute to retaining “high-potential talent”, said Ravi Gupta, the firm’s co-head of UK. Compensation is part of that, but it does not “substitute” its broader retention strategy, Gupta added.

Second-placed Lazard was not perceived as favourably as Rothschild. Lazard was seen as particularly bad for employees' health, and as a place that did not commit to flexible working. When contacted, a Lazard spokesperson said the firm has maintained a structured hybrid-working policy since 2021. Lazard employs over 3,200 people across 22 countries.

Evercore scored better on the qualitative statements, despite receiving fewer votes as a first- or second-choice Ideal Employer. Respondents thought the quality of Evercore’s workforce and compensation was significantly above the market average. It was also considered a place that offered work with meaning. Evercore employs 2,000 people across 26 different offices in 12 different countries.

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, WhatsApp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Signal: sarahbutcher.22  Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. 

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: comments are moderated intermittently by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You must take sole responsibility for comments you post on this site. We will take reasonable steps to weed out anything that we consider to be offensive or inappropriate.