Downtown, The Future of Banking: Part 1

The New York Academy of Sciences, located in downtown Manhattan on the 40th floor of 7 World Trade Center, served as the stage for the unveiling of the results of Vault's latest banking survey on Wednesday.

Vault CEO Erik Sorenson announced the ranking results, noting that the industry "has undergone profound transformation" within the past year.  As far as the new rankings, he said, "the once-mighty have vanished" and mid-sized and smaller banks have shuffled themselves amongst the list--and some top names are notably absent this year. 

The top five banks are as follows: Goldman Sachs, The Blackstone Group, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Investment Bank and Lazard.  Most notable were the absences: Lehman, which came in at No.4 last year, and Merrill Lynch, which ranked at No. 6 in 2008, are both gone. Meanwhile, Centerview Partners took the top spot as the best place to work and Houlihan Lokey took the top spot for business outlook. 

But the main questions that remain are: where's the money? And where are the opportunities going to be? Stay tuned for part two, when we get our panel's thoughts on these questions....

--Posted by Stephanie R. Myers, Vault Staff Writer