China is forcing its brokerages to merge to build firms big enough to compete with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley globally. This week Orient Securities acquired Shanghai Securities creating an $86 billion firm. The goal is 2 to 3 such giants by 2035 that can compete for the big global deals, IPOs, and cross border transactions that Western banks currently dominate.
Today in India, Kotak Investment Banking, SBI Capital Markets, and Axis Capital handle the domestic deals. But the moment a transaction has a global angle, Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan take over.