Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s investment bank has had a great start to the year. It figures behind only JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in the league tables for global M&A and equity capital markets revenues over the first six months of 2013. Better still, it lags only JP Morgan for debt capital markets and overall investment banking revenues, according to figures from data provider Dealogic.

But it is clear that this impressive performance was driven by the bank's strength in its home market where it has a strong corporate franchise and deal activity has been rampant this year. The European league tables suggest Bank of America Merrill Lynch is still punching below its weight in the region.