Mergers and acquisitions bankers and equity derivatives sales staff have never shared much common ground, unless they happened to pass each other in the lift. However, after the most recent bonus round and bout of restructurings at the world's biggest investment banks, M&A and derivatives bankers are sharing offices and clients – and M&A is coming off second best.

Since the end of the 1990s M&A boom, investment banks have moved through a stage of denial and now have a clearer idea of how best to manage their businesses. David Fass, head of global banking in Europe for Deutsche Bank, said: "In the first two years of the new century, we were coming to work hoping for a return to the activity levels of the late 1990s. In fact, the income statement drivers of investment banks have changed and banks are setting themselves up differently."