The only five banks dominating M&A globally

If you saw the Dealogic 2013 investment banking review yesterday you may have noticed a disturbing fact – there’s a ranking where Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are not at the very top.

Disturbing facts, like Canadian banks dominating in Canada, French banks winning out in France and Japanese banks topping the rankings in Japan start to emerge.

Rest easy. Thomson Reuters’ M&A rankings show that the two U.S. banks, and Goldman in particular, top the league tables across all the significant regions in the world for investment banks.

And, unlike yesterday’s data, there’s no talk of it being the best year since 2007 – for M&A, it was the worst year since 2005 for the number of announced deals and the slowest period since 2009 in terms of value at just $2.3bn (barring any last minute deals before the new year). Much of this is down to a terrible fourth quarter, when deals plummeted 40% in Europe and the U.S. Order is restored.

What’s more, if you’re an M&A banker looking for a safe and profitable home, it seems that there are only five options – Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays all top the league tables across all regions.