Kapie

Yes, this gonna be Business Analyst in financial software vendor company. Exactly as DarienHacker mentioned, 'liason between business side and IT', fairly exposed to interacting clients.

Equity analyst would involve making stock recommendations, etc.

So what would you say? There are plenty of posts here by chaps who want to get out of IT, but not so much about Business Analyst role specifically. On other hand, equity analyst can be a great career start in asset management, the route is becoming Portfolio Manager or Fund Manager one day.