The top investment banks by broad business in 2026. A brief guide from Morgan Stanley
Which are the top investment banks of 2026? If this is a question that you are pondering this year, we would like to refer you to the following charts by Morgan Stanley's investment bank analysts.
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Based on historic revenue figures for 2023 and 2024 and estimated revenue figures for 2025 (until full year numbers are released, starting next week), plus estimates for 2026-2028, they show which banks dominate by three business areas in the estimation of Morgan Stanley.
Those business areas are:
- The investment banking division (IBD): Equity capital markets, debt capital markets, M&A and loans
- Equities sales and trading
- Fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) sales and trading
Morgan Stanley itself is not included in the analysis.
With this caveat, the top investment banks by total revenues are: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citi and Bank of America.
The top investment banks (again artificially excluding Morgan Stanley) for IBD alone are: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. For equities, they're Goldman, JPM and BAC. For FICC, they're JPMorgan, Citi and GS.
In reality, Morgan Stanley is also among the top players, particularly for IBD and equities.
The charts below also highlight interesting growth trends. Nomura's FICC franchise looks shaky by Morgan Stanley's estimation. Revenues at US banks have generally grown faster than at Europeans (excluding FICC at Deutsche and Barclays). 2026 may not be a happy year for equities sales and trading professionals after a strong 2024 and 2025.
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