By Anjuli Davies
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Global investment banking feesfell 29 percent in the first quarter of 2016 from a year earlieras market volatility put a brake on dealmaking and equity anddebt capital markets activity, Thomson Reuters data published onMonday showed.
Global fees for services ranging from merger andacquisitions advisory services to capital markets underwritingreached $16.2 billion by the end of March, the slowest firstquarter for fees since 2009.
Regionally, fees in the Americas totalled $8.7 billion, down32 percent from last year. Fees in Europe were down 27 percentat $3.9 billion and the Asia-Pacific region saw an 18 percentdecline to $2.6 billion.
Investment banking income was dragged down across allproducts as global markets were hit by volatility sparked byglobal growth worries, geopolitical tensions in the Middle Eastand a China slowdown.
Company boards and their chief executives were deterred frompulling the trigger on big transformative deals, in contrast tothe record levels of activity seen last year, although thequarter saw a flurry of Chinese companies seeking Westerntargets.
Equity capital markets fees saw the steepest decline of 48percent compared to a year ago, followed by a 26 percent fall indebt capital markets fees and an 18 percent decline in M&Arevenue.
JPMorgan topped the global league table for fees,drawing in $1.2 billion during the quarter, a decline of 23percent compared to a year earlier but gaining slightly inoverall wallet share.
The top five banks were all American, but European banksBarclays and Credit Suisse each gained oneplace to rank sixth and seventh respectively.
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