JPMorgan overtakes Barclays in UK deal fee ranking in blow to investment bank

JPMorgan has jumped ahead of Barclays to take the top spot in a UK deal fee league table in a blow to the British lender’s investment banking ambitions.

The Wall Street giant raked in $324m (£255m) in dealmaking fees from the UK market in the first half of 2024, rising to first place in the ranking from third place during the same period last year, according to figures from data provider Dealogic.

JPMorgan, which is the world’s largest bank by market capitalisation, saw its revenue in the UK surge more than 50 per cent to take its market share of Europe’s biggest fee pool to 12 per cent.

Meanwhile, Barclays slipped to second place from first, with $267m (£210m) in UK dealmaking revenue. Chief executive CS “Venkat” Venkatakrishnan said in a February investor presentation that Barclays wanted to maintain the top spot it secured last year.

The numbers will bolster the case made by some of the bank’s investors that it should ditch its US-based global investment bank, which they have argued is a volatile revenue stream and subscale compared to the biggest Wall Street firms.

Barclays’ earnings have been dragged down by a weaker performance from the unit in recent times. While Venkat has stressed his confidence in the investment bank’s prospects, Barclays is looking to diversify away from dealmaking as part of a wider restructuring announced in February.

It has pledged to cut £700m in costs from the investment bank by 2026 and reduce the proportion of risk-weighted assets allocated to the business.

Investment banks operating in the UK have struggled with a downturn in M&A and capital markets activity in recent years, with IPOs on the London Stock Exchange falling to a fresh low in 2023.

Still, bankers are eying a rebound as central banks are expected to start cutting interest rates in the coming months. Banks made $2.7bn (£2.1bn) in fees from the UK market during the first half of 2024, up 51 per cent year on year, according to Dealogic.

Other movements in the league table included Goldman Sachs slipping to fourth place from second and Morgan Stanley jumping to third from sixth.

Deutsche Bank climbed to sixth place from tenth. The German titan bought the UK’s biggest corporate broker Numis for £410m last year in a bid to become a number one player in the country.