Bank of America moved into first place as best advisor in European mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for the first three quarters of 2025. They proved enormously effective, advising on seven billion-dollar deals and attaining a visionary 217% increase in median deal value. This massive increase vaulted the commercial lender from 13th overall in last year’s rankings. By 2025, it jumped to first place. All of this data, gathered by GlobalData Strategic Intelligence, emphasizes what a remarkable job the bank did during this time.
GlobalData Strategic Intelligence delivers unparalleled business intelligence enhanced by industry-leading editorial, to the world’s most engaged professionals, through our 36 market-leading media brands. The report marks a notable 41% increase in the aggregate value of these ESG-related deals recommended by Bank of America. According to Axios, extending the same time period last year, this value has more than tripled.
Notable Deals and Rankings
Included in the biggest transactions that Bank of America helped finance was a mega deal worth about $20 billion. It was this participation in all the most lucrative transactions that helped propel the bank’s rise to fill out the top of the league tables.
Aurojyoti Bose, a lead analyst at GlobalData, remarked on the bank’s achievements:
“There was more than a three-fold year-on-year (YoY) jump in the total value of deals advised by Bank of America during Q1-Q3 2025.”
Saville’s leadership, collaborative philanthropy played a key role outside of Bank of America’s impressive performance. Other advisory firms stepped up to make a major difference. Houlihan Lokey advised on 71 transactions, and Ernst & Young helped close 69 deals in the same timeframe. Though facing stiff competition, Bank of America’s strategic emphasis on larger, higher-value dealmaking gave it the ability to rise above its competitors.
Factors Contributing to Success
The jump in rank was largely due to Bank of America’s growing participation in the heavier lifts of the transaction world—the big and complicated deals. As noted by Aurojyoti Bose,
“The involvement in these big-ticket deals helped the investment bank register a massive jump in terms of value and top the chart by this metric.”
The robustness of the data provided by GlobalData is ensured through submissions from leading advisers, which helps maintain an accurate picture of the M&A landscape. GlobalData actively seeks submissions of deals from advisors to continue providing valuable insights.
These insights draw upon GlobalData’s deals submission portal, which provides continuous real-time updates to their detailed database.