2020 record year for global i-bank fees – Refinitiv

Global investment banking fees hit a record high in 2020 amid a market rally induced by the coronavirus crisis, according to data company Refinitiv US Holdings Inc.'s annual review of the business.

Data from a pool of 25 global i-bank players showed that fees totaled $127.5 billion in 2020, an 18% increase from 2019 and the highest since records began in 2000. The industry booked its all-time high quarterly fees in the April-June period of last year, during which the figure totaled $35.7 billion.

In the first nine months of 2020, fees had reached $91.2 billion, which was already considered a record-high.

Americas still in the lead

The top-five biggest gainers of fees all came from the U.S., with JPMorgan Chase & Co. leading the pack after booking fees of $9.2 billion, or 7.2% of the industry total. This was followed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. with $8.3 billion, BofA Securities Inc. with $7.3 billion, Morgan Stanley with $7.0 billion and Citigroup Inc. with $5.9 billion.

Altogether, the five U.S. banks accounted for 29.5% of the industry's total fees, with all of them recording double-digit year-over-year increases.

Switzerland-based Credit Suisse Group AG and U.K.-based Barclays PLC took the sixth and seventh spot, with Germany's Deutsche Bank AG, the U.S.' Wells Fargo & Co. and France's BNP Paribas SA rounding out the top 10.

With the top five players coming from the U.S, the Americas continued to hold the highest share of i-bank fees globally on a regional basis, with $65.8 billion, up 24% year over year.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounted for $27.7 billion in fees, an increase of 5% from a year ago, while the Asia-Pacific region saw a 23% year-over-year rise to $28.4 billion. Japan contributed $5.5 billion in 2020, also up 5% from the previous year.

ECM and DCM fees

In the same year, underwriting fees from debt and equity capital markets transactions also reached an all-time high of $43.0 billion and $32.6 billion, respectively, up 25% and 78% year over year.

Refinitiv attributed the increase in DCM fees to a surge in corporate debt transactions, while a "resurgent" IPO market and record follow-on and convertible debt issuances underpinned the growth in ECM fees. JPMorgan earned the most DCM fees among the companies in the sample, booking $3.1 billion or roughly 7.1% of the total. U.S. peer Goldman Sachs booked the highest ECM fees of $3.2 billion, equivalent to 9.9% of the total.

Meanwhile, M&A and syndicated loan fees dropped 4% and 8%, respectively, in 2020. The industry earned $31.2 billion in M&A fees, the weakest annual figures since 2016, and $20.7 billion in syndicated loan fees.

Other companies in Refinitiv's sample include Mizuho Financial Group Inc., UBS Group AG, Jefferies LLC, RBC Capital Markets, HSBC Holdings PLC, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Citic Ltd., Bank of China Ltd., Evercore Partners LLC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Lazard Ltd., Crédit Agricole SA, Nomura Holdings Inc., China International Capital Corp. Ltd. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.