Now or never? European banks eye comeback against Wall Street

JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America between them claimed 31% of merger fees in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region in 2021, according to Refinitiv data, up from 26% in 2019, while their six largest European rivals took just 12%.

LONDON: Replenished firepower and higher interest rates will give Europe’s banks an ideal opportunity this year to reverse recent underperformance and claw back market share from rivals in the United States, industry experts say.

European lenders lost ground to Wall Street rivals during the pandemic because volatile markets boosted the earning power of US banks’ outsized trading arms. European rivals earn proportionately more from lending and benefit from a higher interest rate environment.