Alessandro Daffina, a managing director at Rothschild in Milan, was Europe's most prolific dealmaker of 2004 with 11 mergers and acquisitions advisory mandates, according to Mergermarket, the data provider. However, Daffina will hardly have been a huge revenue generator as the total value of his deals were just €450m ($600m).

The top 10 busiest bankers in Europe were dominated by Rothschild, the investment banking partnership, and Lazard, which plans to end its partnership structure by going public this year.