The global map of investment banking activity is as changeable as the weather. Many are the bankers that have been posted to promising and exotic destinations only to arrive, find that the deals have all dried up and that they must spend their time twiddling their thumbs and reading about a surge in activity in their home markets. As we reported in Financial News last week, growth in M&A activity so far this year has principally been driven by the developed markets in Europe and the US, rather than by the emerging markets, as many investment banks had anticipated.

France, Italy, the Nordic region and the UK all appear in the top five markets with over $100bn of deal volume that have posted the strongest growth this year.