Purva Sule

The head of the financial services practice at Pipal Research in Chicago explains why more investment banks are offshoring credit research

When Pipal Research started out six years ago, the idea of bulge bracket firms outsourcing investment research was unthinkable. "We had a high level meeting with one bank," says Sule, who helped found the firm and now manages the investment research division. "We represented our concept: that you can use outsourcing and offshoring for any of your research functions - debt, equity, investment banking. At that point we received blank stares."

Now it's rare to find an investment bank that doesn't