Investment banks' fees from work on European mergers and acquisitions fell by almost a fifth during the first nine months of this year. Investment bankers have forecast that 2003 will go down as the worst year in a decade for UK M&A.

According to Dealogic, the investment data group, fee income on completed deals dropped 17% from $3.4bn (€2.9bn) to $2.8bn in the first nine months of this year, substantially greater than the fall in the value of European M&A activity which dropped barely 1.5%.