Morgan Stanley Leads Financial Services M&A by Value
Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey top the financial services M&A advisory rankings for Q1-Q3 2026 by deal value and volume, respectively.
Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Financial Services
Morgan Stanley led financial services M&A advisers by deal value with $67.4bn in transactions in Q1-Q3 2026, while Houlihan Lokey led by volume with 38 advised deals. UBS, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan completed the top five by value.
Why it matters
The rankings, compiled from real-time tracking of company and advisory firm websites, offer a snapshot of which banks are capturing the largest share of financial services dealmaking. Morgan Stanley's total value declined compared with Q1-Q3 2025, a shift that bears watching.
Morgan Stanley advised on three mega deals valued over $10bn, while Goldman Sachs advised 25 transactions and Barclays 22 in Q1-Q3 2026. The league table does not state the prior-year Morgan Stanley figure against which the decline is measured.
The players
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global investment bank and financial services firm headquartered in New York that advises on mergers, acquisitions and capital markets transactions.
Houlihan Lokey
Houlihan Lokey is an independent investment bank known for mid-market M&A advisory and restructuring work across global markets.
GlobalData
GlobalData is a London-based data and analytics company that publishes deal tracking and league table rankings across industries.
The details
GlobalData's league tables track advised deals using real-time monitoring of thousands of company and advisory firm websites, with analysts gathering adviser details for each transaction. Piper Sandler and Stifel/KBW each advised on 35 deals in the same period.
Timeline
Q1-Q3 2026: period covered by the financial services M&A league table rankings
Q1-Q3 2025: prior-year comparison period used for Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokey
Market Landscape
The rankings show a split between firms leading on deal size and firms leading on deal count, with Morgan Stanley and UBS concentrating large transactions while Houlihan Lokey and mid-tier banks lead on volume. This split reflects how competition for financial services mandates is divided between mega-deal advisers and high-frequency mid-market specialists.
For companies planning acquisitions or divestitures in financial services, the adviser rankings indicate which banks have the most recent deal experience at either large or mid-market scale. The data signals where advisory capacity is concentrated when selecting an adviser for a transaction.
The takeaway
Deal volume and deal value can rank banks differently, so the leading adviser depends on whether a transaction is large-scale or mid-market. Comparing both measures gives a fuller picture of who is active in financial services M&A.
Further reading
Explore more Financial Services coverage for context on the firms driving sector dealmaking.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Private Banker International.
