The Phoenix Search quarterly briefing on the deals, senior leadership moves and market trends shaping investment banking in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the U.S.
2026 is on course to be one of the biggest years for dealmaking on record. The third quarter was the pause in the middle of it, and the quarter in which the fight for senior bankers became the defining story.
A record year, a softer quarter
- Global M&A fell to $993bn in Q3, down 41% on an exceptional Q2 and the first sub-$1tn quarter since Q2 2025 (LSEG).
- Year to date is still up 28% at $3.9tn, the highest for the period since 2001, even as deal numbers fell 8%.
- Only ten deals above $10bn were announced, led by Banca Monte dei Paschi’s $32bn bid for Banco BPM and Gold Fields’ $25.7bn bid for Northern Star.
- Rates bit. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.34%, its highest since 2002.
- ECM held up. EY counted $93.3bn of IPO proceeds in the quarter, up 79% year on year.
Fee outcomes split by bank. Bank of America guided to a fall of more than 10% in Q3 investment banking fees. JPMorgan guided to growth in the mid to high teens.
UK and Ireland
UK public M&A passed £75bn by the end of Q3, almost double the total for 2025, with overseas buyers taking 94% of value and hostile approaches rising sharply (White & Case). Prologis agreed a recommended £14bn deal for SEGRO, and Nuveen completed its acquisition of Schroders on 1 October.
In Ireland, H1 deal value almost tripled to €33.2bn (William Fry), and BAWAG’s €1.6bn acquisition of PTSB cleared its shareholder vote, with completion expected around the turn of the year.
The advisers are consolidating too
- KeyCorp completed its acquisition of Clearwater Corporate Finance, adding around 130 staff and 20 partners across four UK offices.
- Houlihan Lokey completed its acquisition of energy adviser Intrepid Financial Partners.
- Perella Weinberg’s acquisition of Gleacher Shacklock and Lazard’s combination with Campbell Lutyens are both expected to close in H2.
- Moelis lifted an LP-led secondaries team from Evercore.
Talent: the battle for senior dealmakers
Barclays will move its investment bank to two co-chief executives from February, hiring Mike Joo from Bank of America to run banking alongside Adeel Khan on markets. It also brought back Omar Faruqui from the Takeover Panel as global chair of investment banking.
Elsewhere, two patterns stood out.
- The independents built Europe. Lazard hired Marco Superina from UBS to lead Switzerland, plus senior bankers from Nomura, Barclays, JPMorgan and Bank of America. Evercore hired Philip von Malsen-Plessen from UBS for Frankfurt.
- London sector heads traded places. Citi hired Rogier Pop and Chris Power from JPMorgan, Rasvi Ahmed from BNP Paribas and Jean-Baptiste Charlet from Morgan Stanley. Deutsche Bank hired Robert Farrington from Citi. JPMorgan hired Simon Schneider from Deutsche Bank and Ian Carnegie-Brown from UBS.
Goldman Sachs appointed Simon Lyons as co-head of UK investment banking, Citi’s William Mansfield arrived from Deutsche Bank to lead EMEA M&A, and JPMorgan, which has hired more than 1,000 bankers this year, added Rob Sweeney as a global chair.
Redrawing the junior pyramid
At the other end of the pyramid, Citi cut its analyst programme from three years to two, and UBS now asks junior applicants to demonstrate AI proficiency before they are hired. Banks are paying more for the senior bankers who own relationships while shortening the path from analyst to vice president.
Download the full report
The full Q3 2026 Investment Banking Sector Report includes every transaction and senior appointment we tracked this quarter, plus our market backdrop. Download it here, and subscribe to our Investment Banking newsletter on LinkedIn.
If you are planning senior hires in investment banking, M&A advisory or capital markets, find out more about our investment banking executive search practice and our London investment banking search team, or speak to Ed Rossiter and Jonathan Beall.
Sources: company announcements and trade press, including LSEG, Reuters, Bloomberg, Financial News, EY, White & Case, William Fry and Johnson Associates.
