If you were to hand the M&A league tables for 2006 and 2009 to someone who had spent the past three years in an underground bunker they would probably deduce that nothing much had happened while they were away.

Despite the worst economic crisis in a lifetime and the collapse of a handful of leading players, the M&A rankings published last year look disconcertingly similar to those published before the crisis - with the same bulge brackets firms still dominating.