Investment Bank League Tables Explained: How Rankings Work

A league table is a ranking of investment banks by their activity in a category of transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, equity offerings or bond issuance, over a stated period. A bank deal league table counts the deals each firm worked on, adds up the value or fees credited to it, and sorts the firms from largest to smallest. Banks cite these rankings in marketing, issuers consult them when choosing advisers, and the business press reports them every quarter. But there is no official league table. No regulator compiles one, and the numbers depend on a provider’s rules for what counts and who gets credit. This guide explains how the rankings are built and how to read them.

In brief

• League tables are produced by commercial data providers and some publications, not by the SEC, FINRA or any other regulator.
• Rankings differ by league category (M&A advisory, equity capital markets, debt capital markets, loans, and sub-categories), by region and by period.
• The method for assigning credit can change the order, especially when many banks share a deal.
• Tables measure volume or fees credited. They do not measure quality of advice, price achieved or client satisfaction.

What a league table ranks

Every table starts with a category and a measure. The common ones:

• M&A advisory: ranked by the value of announced or completed deals on which a bank advised the buyer, the seller or the target. Each deal’s value is credited to each adviser.
• Equity capital markets: ranked by the proceeds of initial public offerings, follow-ons and equity-linked offerings for which a bank acted as a bookrunner.
• Debt capital markets: ranked by the amounts of investment-grade, high-yield and other bond issues underwritten, sometimes separately from loans.
• Syndicated loans: ranked by commitments or by roles such as mandated lead arranger.
• Fees: some tables rank banks by estimated fee income earned, which requires estimates, as banks rarely disclose fees deal by deal.

Providers build their lists by combining public filings, press releases and information that banks and law firms submit. Banks often report their own deals to the data providers, and the providers check and standardize the submissions.

How credit is assigned

The headline question is how a single transaction is divided among the banks involved. Several conventions exist.

Full credit to each adviser (M&A). In many M&A tables, each adviser to a deal gets the full deal value in its total. A 10 billion dollar transaction with two advisers on one side and one on the other puts 10 billion into each adviser’s tally. The sum of all banks’ credited values therefore far exceeds the value of deals done in the market. This approach rewards participation, including minor roles.

Equal split among bookrunners (capital markets). For securities offerings, the proceeds are commonly divided among the bookrunners. In a hypothetical 1.2 billion dollar offering with three bookrunners, each might be credited with 400 million dollars. Some providers weight lead-left positions more heavily or split by role, so the numbers vary.

Weighting by role. Co-managers can receive a smaller share or none, depending on the table.

Announced versus completed. An announced M&A table counts deals when they are announced, including those that later fail. A completed table counts deals only when they close, so it lags and excludes terminated deals. Both are legitimate and answer different questions.

Pending and withdrawn deals. Some tables include pending transactions as of the cut-off date; others do not. Withdrawn deals are usually removed.

A worked example

Imagine three hypothetical banks in a quarter with two M&A deals.

• Deal 1: value 6 billion dollars. Advisers: Bank A and Bank B on one side, Bank C on the other.
• Deal 2: value 2 billion dollars. Adviser: Bank A only.

Under full credit, Bank A is credited with 8 billion dollars, Bank B with 6 billion and Bank C with 6 billion. Under a convention that divides each deal’s value equally among all of its advisers, Deal 1 gives each bank 2 billion dollars, and Bank A adds all 2 billion from Deal 2, so the totals are 4 billion for Bank A and 2 billion each for Banks B and C. Bank A ranks first either way, but its lead over the others is about a third under the first method and a full 100 percent under the second. In real tables with many deals, the order itself can change. The lesson is that a ranking is a product of a method as well as of market activity.

Why two tables disagree

Even for the same quarter and the same category, rankings from two providers can differ because of:

• Deal inclusion rules. Minimum deal sizes, treatment of private deals, and whether to count joint ventures, spin-offs or buybacks.
• Geography. A deal can be assigned by the target’s nation, the acquirer’s nation, or both.
• Date conventions. Announcement date versus closing date, and the calendar used for the cut-off.
• Value definitions. Whether the value includes assumed debt, earn-outs or only equity paid.
• Adviser identification. Mergers of banks, renamed entities, and the treatment of affiliates.
• Reporting delays. Late submissions can lift a firm’s total in later editions.

When comparing two tables, check the footnotes on methodology before drawing a conclusion.

What the public record shows

Although league tables themselves are private compilations, the inputs often come from public documents.

• Securities offerings. Regulation S-K Item 508 requires a registration statement for an offering through underwriters to name the principal underwriters and state the amounts each will underwrite. The prospectus therefore tells readers who ran the deal and in what role.
• Underwriter roles. The Securities Act’s definition of underwriter is broad, covering those who purchase for distribution and those who participate in it. League table providers must decide which participants count as bookrunners, and the prospectus cover page and plan of distribution give the evidence.
• Underwriting compensation. FINRA Rule 5110 requires that underwriting terms and arrangements, including total compensation, not be unfair or unreasonable, and the prospectus describes the arrangements. That makes fee data for equity offerings partly observable, though not as a ranking.
• Fairness opinions. In M&A, the proxy statement or other deal document often describes the financial advisers and fairness opinions. FINRA Rule 5150 requires a member issuing a fairness opinion that will be provided or described to public shareholders to disclose, among other items, any compensation contingent on completion, so the adviser’s role and pay are disclosed in the deal materials.

Readers who want to test a league table figure can look up the underlying documents on the SEC’s EDGAR system and compare.

Reading a table well

1. Identify the category and metric. Is it value, deal count or fees?
2. Check the period. Quarter, half-year, calendar year or trailing twelve months.
3. Read the credit rule. Full credit or split.
4. Note the status filter. Announced, completed or both.
5. Look at margins. Small gaps between neighbors in the ranking are often within the noise of methodology.
6. Compare across several categories. A bank can rank first in one product and far down in another.
7. Consider the mix. A few very large deals can lift one bank’s total for a single period.

What league tables do not tell you

Quality. A table does not say whether advice was good, whether the price was fair or whether the deal worked after closing.

Fees. Volume rankings do not translate directly into revenue. A bank with a large share of a low-fee product may earn less than one with a smaller share of a high-fee product.

Role. Being one of many advisers on a large deal can look the same on a table as being the sole lead.

Client fit. Some clients choose a boutique with deep sector expertise over a larger rival, and a ranking built on size may not capture that.

Profit. Rankings say nothing about whether a bank made money on its underwriting commitments or on the deal.

Common misconceptions

“The league table is an official ranking.” It is a commercial product.

“First place means the best bank.” It means the most credited activity under that provider’s rules.

“Adding the banks’ totals gives the size of the market.” With full credit to each adviser, totals double count.

“Rankings are stable.” Single large transactions can swing a quarter. Longer periods tend to be steadier.

“Banks do not influence the data.” Providers rely partly on information from banks and advisers. They verify submissions, but disclosure practices vary.

How banks and issuers use them

Banks use league table rank in pitch books to show experience. Issuers and boards use them as one input in selecting advisers, alongside sector expertise, the individual banker, and conflicts. Journalists use them to summarize market shifts, such as which firm gained share in a quarter. Investors and analysts use them to track the competitive position of the large firms covered in investment bank news, usually alongside the banks’ own reported revenue figures in their SEC filings.

FAQ

Who publishes investment bank league tables?

Commercial data and news providers publish them, drawing on deal databases. No regulator publishes an official table.

Why does a bank claim to be number one while a rival says the same?

Each may be citing a different category, region, period or provider. A bank can legitimately be first in one cut of the data and lower in another.

Do league tables show how much a bank earned?

No, unless the table is explicitly a fee estimate, and even then the numbers are estimates. Volume rankings do not reveal revenue.

Is an announced ranking or a completed ranking better?

Neither is better. Announced tables show current momentum and include deals that may not close. Completed tables show finished business and lag behind.

Where can I verify a deal in a league table?

Start with the prospectus or registration statement for securities offerings, which names the underwriters, and the proxy statement or merger filings for M&A, which describe the financial advisers. Both are available through the SEC’s EDGAR system.