CIMB is a bulge bracket wannabe. In reality their regional large cap equity research is a joke, but because the Malaysian Prime Minister's brother Nazir Razak is the CEO, they get most of the big Malaysian deals (and some foreign) and think they can challenge the big boys. Their regionalization is patchy. They took over a great Singapore firm GK Goh, but it seems to be mediocre now as a Singapore broker. Hong Kong and Thailand are in poor shape despite huge expenditure. Only in Indonesia are a they making any progress.

In theory, a few CIMB people can be paid well due to those large deals sourced from political connections, but in general, if you are a top analyst or investment banker, you wouldn't consider CIMB at all.