What are bank research jobs and what do research analysts do?

8 hours ago

11 minute read

What are bank research jobs and what do research analysts do?

If you work in research in an investment bank, you will make predictions about the prices of traded securities. Your predictions might be either about equities (stocks) or debt (fixed income).
Depending upon your area of focus, you'll need to understand corporations, industries, and broader economic issues in detail.
People who succeed in research jobs tend to be good communicators and creative thinkers.
Top performers in research often go into other roles in fund management or investment banking, although there are plenty of highly paid and senior jobs in research itself.
As a researcher, you are effectively a resource for the rest of the bank to consult; there are always opportunities to impress senior bankers.

In the financial services industry, a research analyst’s job is to understand the prices of financial instruments and why those prices might change. Prices are important because clients are buying and selling bonds and equities in the hope of making money from price changes, and they want insights into what might happen. Research analysts also support other divisions of their own bank.

When an initial public offering (IPO) is happening and equity capital markets (ECM) banking colleagues are floating a company on the public markets, researchers will explain why the IPO is a good investment. Before the $86bn SpaceX IPO in June 2026, Finimize reported that 125 analysts from 21 different banks met SpaceX leadership. They also visited xAI's "Macrohard" data center in Memphis, Tennessee.

In general, research analysts are attached to a sales and trading division. They usually specialize in either equities or debt and focus on a particular area of the market. Some banks have specialist cross asset research teams working across both, and sometimes there will be a separate economics research team serving both sides of sales and trading. There are also economic researchers focused on the economic implications for their specific markets. Researchers of this breed are often referred to as strategists.

Sadly, an investment bank’s research team is never its most glamorous division, as the people who work there don’t directly generate revenue. It doesn’t help that the name of the most junior career title in investment banking (“analyst”) is another name given to researchers. In research, you get “analysts” who are actually Managing Directors.

What is a fixed income research analyst?

Fixed income (also known as bond research) analysis is a job that deals with all areas of the interest rate markets, and the issuers that connect a central bank to sovereign and corporate borrowers. Moyeen Islam, a Barclays fixed income strategist, describes his role as “to translate the economists’ view on the likely policy path of the central bank into a market view.”

Fixed income analysts tend to have a much greater number of companies to cover than equity research analysts. Unlike equity researchers they don’t generally publish earnings forecasts, and they make fewer trading recommendations. Consequently, their notes tend to be shorter, and they publish fewer updates. Fixed income researchers also need to be aware of the credit ratings of the bonds under their coverage, and to anticipate ratings changes from agencies such as S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch – who employ significant numbers of their own analysts.

Fixed income teams tend to be split by sector and by geography, although fixed income research departments tend to have larger teams covering financials (banks and other finance firms) than any other sector, reflecting the fact that the financial sector itself is the largest issuer of bonds.

Darren Sharma, founder and CEO of research boutique Frontline Analysts, explains it like this. “You’re basically running a small, very specialized news service with a particular beat to cover, and a readership of a few dozen – maybe a few hundred – extremely well-informed people. Within that little area, you’ve got to be the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and the BBC World Service”.

What is an equity research analyst?

Equity researchers cover equities, also known as stocks. They are expected to write notes on every set of quarterly results for each of the companies they cover, along with regular thematic notes on the industry as a whole and updates when they change their view on a valuation or their recommendation. They also maintain spreadsheet models of each of their companies and publish earnings forecasts. Equity analysts typically cover around ten stocks each.

Equity research analysts are also divided into teams. These will generally be sector-based and follow the same sectoral classifications as the stock market indices – consumer goods, technology, financials, oil & gas, and so on. Geographically, these teams will be divided according to the investor base, so there are usually EMEA, Americas, APAC, and emerging markets analyst teams in every sector, who communicate with one another to establish a (reasonably) consistent global view.

In a hedge fund, the job of an equity analyst is a bit different. Shawn Cain covers 50 different restaurant, retail, and leisure stocks at hedge fund Citadel. “When I was an analyst at an investment bank, I used to write long research reports,” Cain told us. At Citadel, Cain said his job as an analyst is to present the portfolio manager with "actionable investment ideas," and to synthesize other research so that the PM can understand a path to meeting money. He also meets with the management of the companies he covers to better understand their strategies.

What do deal research jobs involve?

As well as supporting the sales and trading business by making recommendations to clients and warning the trading desk of upcoming events, research analysts must write “deal research”. This happens when the bank is involved in an issue of new securities, arranging by the capital markets team (Equity Capital Markets or Debt Capital Markets). Deal research does not contain any investment recommendations: it’s meant to give a summary to investors of the key facts relating to the issuer, a set of earnings forecasts and a range of valuations.

Deal research is also known as primary research – it supports primary deals. By comparison, everyday trading recommendations are known as secondary research because they refer to securities which have already been issued. Writing primary research is a relatively rare event for equity analysts, as it is associated with IPOs and rights issues. It can be quite fun; aside from online meetings and discussions, SpaceX invited analysts to visit Starbase, its colossal campus in Boca Chica, Texas. For bond analysts, however, it is the main part of the job, as fixed income securities tend to be traded less, but require constant new issuance as bonds mature.

How are research jobs changing?

The research profession has changed a lot in the last few years, mostly as a consequence of new legislation. Traditionally, equity research was a service that banks charged for when a “buy-side” firm (such as a pension fund or asset manager) used the bank’s services to purchase or sell a security, such as a stock. However, they didn't charge for research separately. Instead, the cost of research was bundled with all the other costs involved in executing placing the trade.

That system changed dramatically in Europe in 2018, with the introduction of a huge new book of regulation known as MiFID II. Among other rules, MiFID II mandated that research and trade transaction costs be “unbundled” – sold separately. Suddenly, clients were asked to pay for research on its own.

Consequently, the European equity research industry crumbled. Data from market intelligence firm Coalition Greenwich published by Bloomberg showed that the number of European equity analysts fell from 3.9k to 2.9k in the five years from 2018 to 2023, a decline of over 25%.

The trend has continued since then. Research from market intelligence firm Substantive Research earlier this year showed that, between 2023 and 2026, some 740 mid-tier research analysts left the job market, leaving superstar senior analysts and hard-worked junior analysts in their place. The latter produces the research; the former sells it (and themselves, and their firms).

A now-retired senior equity researcher told us last year that his team had spent much of the time since MiFID’s passing “scrabbling” in a new world of “vicious” competition. MiFID meant senior analysts became more like salespeople in the new competitive world.

Juniors are increasingly producing the research themselves. This trend, which is known as juniorization, has been unpopular since it began. Clients did not want to pay for research produced by fresh-faced analysts. Euromoney reported in December 2024 that 7,500 years of “net experience” left the industry between 2018 and 2021, of which only 1,400 had since returned.

Both the UK and EU have since revoked their MiFID unbundling requirements. The UK’s financial conduct authority did so in July 2024; the EU followed suit in December 2024. The damage is likely permanent, however. Mark Shaw of law firm Pinsent Masons said that after the revocation of unbundling that “most brokerages and banks disbanded their research departments… It’s unlikely that we’ll see any immediate benefit.”

Which skills are required for banking research jobs?

Research analysts function as a bank's academics. They must be comfortable with company accounts and economic data and consulted as experts by everyone else inside and outside the firm. The practical requirements are simple: start your day early, have a memory capacious enough to absorb constant news flow, and be able to explain what it means for a stock. There's also more creativity than expected, as notes range from quick comments to months-long deep dives, and the work often resembles journalism.

The dominant skill is people; analysts pitch, present, and build relationships with the companies they cover. one Citadel researcher told us the best analysts "live their coverage" rather than relying on data that only extrapolates. Seniority intensifies this, with superstar analysts traveling constantly and gathering their best ideas from investors and management while juniors handle the numbers.

What impact is AI having on financial research jobs?

Although equity research spent years preoccupied with unbundling and juniorization, a sneaky disruption has been – and still is – AI. AI frees up analysts for (ideally, more interesting) work that can't be reduced to retrieval, such as weighing evidence, testing assumptions, disagreeing, and judging what the market has missed. This is more interesting than just manual data entry.

The job consequences are visible at the bottom. As we noted above, Substantive Research counted 736 mid-tier analysts leaving between 2023 and 2026. 80% of large asset managers planned modest budget rises aimed at senior names. Some firms now mass-produce research; a recently launched firm called AIBNKO, for example, claims unlimited coverage without human intervention.

Education and qualifications for research jobs

It helps to study the right subjects. When we looked at recent intern recruits in SocGen’s research team, for example, many studied finance, economics and mathematics.

Because researchers specialize in particular sectors, there can be more variety in the qualifications in research. Medical doctors will sometimes cover biotech firms, for example. After a few years in a particular related industry like healthcare is, an MBA can provide an opportunity to pivot into a research job at associate level.

The CFA Charter and the three related CFA exams were designed for researchers, so this is the critical qualification here. If you want to work in research, it probably helps to start studying the CFA Level I, even at university.

Salaries and bonuses in research

Researchers can earn good money. Although our 2026 Compensation & Lifestyle Report found that they do not earn as much as investment banking or sales & trading professionals, they also worked less hours on average than either role.

Data from recruitment consultancy Octavius Finance for London found that long-only equity analysts, which is the kind that banks employ to cover stocks, can earn anywhere between £60k ($81k) and £225k ($303k) in salary alone depending on experience, and at the highest end can earn bonuses that take their total compensation to over £600k per year.

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