Bulge bracket

The bulge bracket comprises the world's largest and most profitable multi-national investment banks whose investment banking clients are usually large corporations, institutions, and governments. They usually provide both advisory and financing banking services, as well as the sales, market making, and research on a broad array of financial products including equities, credit, rates, commodities, and their derivatives. They are also heavily involved in the invention of new financial products, such as mortgage-backed securities in the 1980s, credit default swaps in the 1990s, and today, carbon emission trading and insurance-linked products. Bulge bracket firms are usually primary dealers in US treasury securities. Bulge bracket banks are also global in the sense that they have a strong presence in all three of the world's major regions: The Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.