Investment banking - statistics & facts
For the first time since 2021, global investment banking revenue crossed the 100 billion U.S. dollar mark in 2025. A striking rebound that few had predicted just two years earlier, when the industry was navigating one of its leanest periods. Fueled by a resurgence in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and a renewed appetite for equity capital markets activity, each quarter of 2025 delivered global investment banking revenues above 24 billion U.S. dollars. At the top of the league tables, JPMorgan retained its dominant position, generating roughly 8.6 billion U.S. dollars in investment banking revenue, followed by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
M&A activity drives the fee pool
The recovery in dealmaking was the single biggest driver behind the industry's strong year. Goldman Sachs led the field, advising on M&A deals worth nearly 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars globally in 2025, while JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley rounded out the top three. Across regions, the United States remained the most active market, though European M&A deal values also climbed significantly, with Goldman Sachs advising on transactions worth over 600 billion U.S. dollars in Europe alone. The financial sector generated the highest share of global investment banking fees, well ahead of energy and power or high technology.
IPOs and the shifting geography of public listings
The global initial public offering (IPO) market also gained momentum, with a notable shift in the geography of listings. Hong Kong captured the largest share of global IPO proceeds in the first three quarters of 2025, followed by the NYSE and Nasdaq. In terms of deal volume, Indian exchanges dominated, accounting for over a quarter of all IPOs completed worldwide. Meanwhile, AI is starting to reshape how banks execute analyst-level work, with the latest benchmarks showing that leading large language models can already complete realistic investment banking analyst tasks with meaningful accuracy.
Outlook: megadeals and AI set to shape 2026
Looking ahead, the consensus among major advisory firms is that dealmaking will accelerate further in 2026. Some firms expect M&A volumes to exceed those of any year in the past decade, while others anticipate fewer but larger strategic megadeals. Easing inflation, stabilizing interest rates, and recovering valuations provide a supportive macroeconomic backdrop. On the technology front, AI-driven automation is expected to expand from routine analysis into areas like due diligence and deal structuring, potentially reshaping the industry's cost base and talent demands. For now, though, the investment banking sector enters 2026 on its strongest footing in years.
