At first glance it doesn’t really look like a fair fight: the big Wall Street banks flattened their European rivals in investment banking last year. They filled the top five slots in the ranking of global investment banking fees for the first time since 2009 and their combined market share of 34% reached its highest level since before the financial crisis, according to Dealogic. The top five European banks could scarcely muster 20% between them.

In their home market, the big five US banks took the top five slots as well, and in Europe they hammered the local competition, filling five of the top eight slots with their highest market share in a decade.