Core databases, company filings and financial modeling

Primary disclosure filings: SEC EDGAR, Companies House and Unternehmensregister^1-3

Statutory corporate disclosures are the bedrock of investment banking analysis. In the US, SEC EDGAR hosts annual 10-Ks, quarterly 10-Qs, 8-K material event notices, and Form S-4 registration statements containing unredacted merger proxies and board fairness presentations. In the UK, Companies House provides statutory accounts and director registers for private and public firms. In Germany, the Unternehmensregister and Bundesanzeiger host HGB § 325 audited financial statements, electronic commercial register (Handelsregister) excerpts, and group consolidation notes.

Damodaran Online: industry benchmarks, betas and equity risk premiums⁴

Maintained by Professor Aswath Damodaran at NYU Stern, this repository is the banking industry's standard open benchmark for valuation inputs. Updated annually in January, it provides unlevered and levered sector betas, industry debt-to-equity ratios, Cost of Capital (WACC) breakdowns, country default spreads, and global equity risk premiums (ERP). It enables valuation modeling that rests on defensible empirical data rather than arbitrary rule-of-thumb assumptions.

Macabacus: financial modeling standards and formula libraries⁵

A comprehensive open knowledge base for Wall Street financial modeling conventions in Microsoft Excel. It details standard formatting practices (blue inputs, black formulas, green cross-sheet links), three-statement integration mechanics, dynamic 5-year and 10-year DCF schedules, LBO debt waterfall modeling (revolver, term loans, mezzanine), and M&A purchase price allocation (PPA) mechanics.

Macroeconomic databases: FRED and the ECB Data Portal^6,7

Macro monitoring and sovereign debt pricing require primary central bank statistics. The St. Louis Fed FRED database offers over 800,000 economic time series covering Treasury yield curves, credit spreads (ICE BofA High Yield), CPI inflation, and employment indicators. The ECB Data Portal supplies euro-area MFI balance sheet statistics, government benchmark bond yields (10Y German Bund), EURIBOR fixings, and bank lending surveys crucial for European deal underwriting.

League tables and market volume releases: Dealogic, Mergermarket and LSEG⁸

Published quarterly and annually, investment banking league tables rank financial advisors and underwriters by transaction volume, deal count, and fee wallet across M&A, ECM, and DCM. They form the empirical foundation for bank tiering, sector credentials, and 'tombstone' pitches delivered to prospective corporate clients.