The Best Place To Work In The Global Financial Markets Is....

The Wall Street firm came out top in our comprehensive 2008 poll, gathering votes from staff from around the globe.

Bob Wigley, Chairman of Merrill Lynch EMEA, said 'I'm delighted colleagues who work at Merrill Lynch have voted our firm the Best Place to Work in the Global Financial Markets. In today's world, the true differentiating factor in the marketplace is the quality of our people, and so the importance of attracting and retaining the best talent has never been greater. That means recognising and embracing talent in all its forms. Diversity is key, and at Merrill Lynch we emphasize a meritocratic, fully-inclusive organisation - a culture in which every individual has an equal opportunity for contribution and development'.

Here's the full table of the Top 32 firms (last year's position in brackets):

1(18). Merrill Lynch

2(6). UBS

3(5). Nomura

4(56). Credit Suisse

5(2). Morley Fund Management

6(36). State Street

7(33). Bank of America

8(4). Dresdner Kleinwort

9(1). Jefferies & Co

10(28). KBC Group

11(23). BNP Paribas

12(21). Barclays Capital

13(50). JPMorgan Chase

14(34). Citi

15(8). Rabobank

16(3). Daiwa Securities SMBC

17(27). Goldman Sachs

18(15). Royal Bank of Scotland

19(14). Bear Stearns

20(79). GAM

21(-). PIMCO

22(53). AIG (America International Group)

23(48). Morgan Stanley

24(10). Threadneedle Asset Management

25(78). Fidelity Investments

26(71). BlackRock

27(39). Lehman Brothers

28(7). Fortis

29(64). Man Group

30(38). Schroders Investment Management

31(43). Deutsche Bank

32(24). Standard & Poor's

Falling out of the Top 32 this time around were:

Commerzbank (9)

ABN AMRO (11)

Fitch Ratings (13)

Societe Generale (16)

BGC Partners (17)

Barclays Global Investors (20)

Olswang (22)

Clifford Chance (25)

The Financial Services Authority (26)

ING (29)

Northern Trust (30)

Eurohypo (31)