Top Investment Banks in India: an overview
Firms that manage public issues in India must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as merchant bankers, and SEBI's public register listed 253 such registered intermediaries as of 11 October 2026. The largest equity and debt mandates are shared between bank-owned houses – such as Kotak Investment Banking, which traces its investment banking work back to 1991, SBI Capital Markets, ICICI Securities and Axis Capital – and independent firms including JM Financial, IIFL Capital, Motilal Oswal, Nuvama, DAM Capital, Avendus and Equirus.
The industry is concentrated in Mumbai. Kotak Investment Banking, SBI Capital Markets and Avendus all have their main offices in the Bandra Kurla Complex, Equirus is based in Lower Parel, and DAM Capital's registered office is on Dalal Street in Fort. Avendus, established in 1999, describes itself as a full-spectrum financial services firm and lists offices in India, the United States and Singapore, while ICICI Securities operates from Prabhadevi.
Global banks run onshore operations from the same cluster. J.P. Morgan's physical presence in India dates to 1945 and its local business added investment banking in the 1980s. Goldman Sachs set up its onshore Mumbai business in 2006 after a ten-year joint venture, Citi says it has been committed to India for more than 120 years, and Morgan Stanley's newest Mumbai workplace houses about 8,500 staff.