However, there are still pure investment banks out there that don't deal much in leveraged financed deals, or don't deal in them at all. Most of these institutions still have smaller groups dedicated to keeping track of the markets, though. In both kinds of institution, the leveraged finance platform is usually part of a debt capital markets group. The size of this group is determined by how many deals need to be made.
One common misperception is that investment banking is only involved in providing advice and solutions to companies. This is one area where leveraged finance is different from traditional investment banking, since this area offers not just advice, but a product. However, this is a slightly outdated definition. Most people now define investment banking as not just offering advice, but executing financial transactions as well. If you're using this definition of investment banking, leveraged finance works the same way.
There are also some groups that do leveraged finance for companies, but without the industry platform or coverage group you'd expect with an investment bank. These institutions have relationships with companies in similar ways, but don't offer the same kind of advice. After all, the loan market is private, and many different kinds of firms can offer lending solutions to companies. The company is going to go to the firm with the best rate, rather than choosing an investment bank over another option. This is an area where leveraged finance works more like commercial lending than it does like traditional investment banking.
Finance jobs in a coverage group or at an investment bank are much different than finance jobs in an equity capital markets (ECM) or debt capital markets (DCM). ECM and DCM banking jobs involve the execution of more deals. People in these roles may not be as familiar with every facet of the industry as people in banking jobs at a coverage group would be. However, they often have broader knowledge of the financial markets.
This trade off of breadth versus depth of knowledge has a direct relationship with the amount of transaction experience that leveraged finance offers. A leveraged finance job is likely to be more hectic on a day to day basis, since the deal team might be closing up to two huge transactions in one day - in the multibillion dollar range. A coverage role isn't likely to see this happen. However, there's also less idea generation and need to pitch those ideas to clients than there is in a coverage group. Leveraged finance workers do in fact do pitching, but usually they come along with the industry coverage group instead of doing it on their own.
