Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan were the top mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the global financial services sector for 2020 by value and volume, respectively. Morgan Stanley advised on 42 deals worth US$147.6bn, which was the highest value among all the advisers. Meanwhile, JP Morgan led by volume, having advised on 50 deals worth US$113bn. A total of 3,314 M&A deals were announced in the sector during 2020, marking an 8.9% decrease over the 3,636 deals announced in 2019, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s report, ‘Global and Financial Services M&A Report Financial Adviser League Tables 2020’, deal value decreased by 13.7% from US$523bn in 2019 to US$451bn in 2020.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “JP Morgan was the only firm that managed to advise on 50 deals. The firm advised on some of the big-ticket deals, which also include three mega deals that were worth more than or equal to US$10bn and was among the few advisors to cross the US$100bn mark. JP Morgan also occupied the third position by value.

“Morgan Stanley advised on more high-value transactions, which helped it occupy the top spot by value. The firm advised on four mega deals and also secured the third spot in terms of deal volume.”

Goldman Sachs occupied the second position in GlobalData’s ranking by both value as well as volume with 46 deals worth US$126.4bn.