An investment bank that engages in all types of activities, including trading, underwriting, merchant banking, merger and acquisition, securities services, investment management, and research. Examples of such a bank include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, etc. Full-service investment banks are typically categorized as bulge bracket or tier one and tier two. Until September 2008, bulge bracket described the largest investment banks in terms of size and profitability.

Examples of bulge brackets, in this sense, included Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Citi, UBS, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers. After September 2008, an radical shift in the definition of bulge bracket materialized, when Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch, Leman Brothers collapsed, and Goldman Sachs converted itself into a traditional bank holding company.