Wall street of the west (San Francisco, Pasadena: sale, employment, to live)

[high density]

Is los angeles or san francisco the banking center of the west. Are either of these two cities comparable to miami in how it has many foreign banks from south america. is la a hub for asian banks?

[checkup]

as finance/banking hubs, SF is probably a bit bigger than LA. That said, both are many times smaller than NYC and probably a bit smaller than Chicago/Boston

[jam1919]

Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, Union Bank, Bank of the West, venture capital firms, etc... easily make San Francisco bigger. NYC, Chicago, Boston, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Dallas are probably bigger than both L.A. and SF though.

[radiolibre99]

No way SF is third to Chicago and NYC as far as banking goes.

[Fastphilly]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

No way SF is third to Chicago and NYC as far as banking goes.

Yes way. NYC, Chicago and then a close third between Boston and San Francisco.

[midnightfapper]

are you ****ing ****ting me?

los angeles is to high finance as haitian dirt cookie baker is to haute cusine.

there are 50 times more banks on a single brickell block than the entire los angeles metro area.

[HarryKerryJr]

When the Pacific Stock Exchange ceased LA and SF become even more tied to the NYSE. Of course the NASDAQ has always been its own universe. As far as headquarters, it is SF because it just happened that the big, long in history LA banks sold (allowed acquisition) to SF banks, and First Interstate (headquartered at Library Tower) who has always spurned Washington Mutual's offers had said they were too tied to the community and just weren't interested in selling with still lots of $$ to be made and very healthy--unitl WAMU finally proposed a big enough digits in its desperate bid to attain First Interstate. First Interstate execs made a lot of money on that sale and WaMu way overpaid for FI.

As far as where the big money and larger operations and far more important to their bottom line for the SF banks, it is ALL about LA and southern CA. The most employees, branches, offices, operations, etc. are down here. It's like the wealthy who lived in Pasadena, but made their money in LA. There really are far more jobs for those in finance HERE in LA area with many different offices of all the big investment banks and brokerages. A never ending merry go round of employment options, not quite so in SF, but only because it is smaller and doesn't have the industries and economy here, and then almost next to nothing in high finance jobs in cities like Seattle, a city I LOVE, but just had no jobs for my decades long stock market tied uncle who was dying to live there, but always had far more than enough opportunities here in LA and no choice but to stay here, for the JOBS. Let's make no mistake: NYC is, by far, the financial capital.

Further, I can tell you that at one LA Merrill office, they had lots of clients in NYC (along with other people from across the country) because the services offered here were better. Further, places like Merrill, et al., who are headquarter in NYC, often set up their top clients with accounts at one of the LA offices because NYC and NY state regulate them so heavily because they are hardhearted there and are always snooping for improprieties, such as some of the funny business with IPO's involving many of the wealthiest individuals. This is a common practice to set up accounts at one of our "boutique" brokerage offices here in LA and avoid a lot of scrutiny in NY. The brokerage offices in LA are many and huge. Then add to that the local wealth and you have a heck of a lot money employing a lot of people in the Finance industry in LA.