Piper Sandler led in volume, advising on 60 deals worth $29.4 billion. In total there were 2,804 mergers in the sector between the first and third quarters of 2021.

Year-on-year, deal flow has risen by roughly 60 per cent to $424 billion against more surpressed activity in 2020.

“Although Goldman Sachs experienced tough competition in terms of deal volume, the firm was way ahead by value due to its involvement in several big-ticket deals. In fact, Goldman Sachs was the only financial advisor that managed to advise on deals that were just shy of $100 billion during Q1 to Q3 2021, thereby outpacing its peers by a significant margin,” Aurojyoti Bose, lead analyst at GlobalData, said.

The Wall Street firm reported blowout earnings last week, amid other strong banking performances, with its investment banking arm recording its second-highest quarterly net revenues ever, reaching $3.55 billion for the quarter ending 30 September, and much higher than analysts’ estimates of $2.85 billion.

It comes as SEC filings late last week revealed that Goldman chief executive David Solomon has been granted performance-based stock worth $30 million after taking a well-publicized pay cut at the start of the year.

GlobalData figures show that JP Morgan occupied the second spot in terms of value, with 58 deals worth $68.6 billion; Morgan Stanley was third on 28 deals worth $61 billion, followed by Lazard with 15 deals worth $41.2 billion and Stifel/KBW just behind on 49 deals worth $35.2 billion.