North America's investment banks overcame early market disruptions, then surged with major M&A, IPO, and debt deals in 2025.
In 2025, North America’s investment banks navigated a challenging market landscape, with geopolitical tensions and tariff uncertainties stalling deal activity early in the year.
However, the following firms—J.P. Morgan, Houlihan Lokey, Morgan Stanley and BofA Securities—quickly adapted, showing remarkable resilience across M&A, equity offerings, and debt markets.
Despite early headwinds, these top players demonstrated their ability to thrive in a volatile environment, reshaping the financial landscape.
Best Investment Bank
J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan led a $1 billion deal for digital financial infrastructure provider Circle Internet Group; and for Heartflow, a provider of AI-driven cardiac diagnostics, in its $364.2 million offering. In Latin America, the bank led four block trades totaling $2.1 billion in aggregate for LATAM Airlines. Additionally, the firm participated in the Xiaomi $5.5 billion equity offering in the Asia-Pacific region. In debt capital markets, the bank participated in a $20 billion financing commitment for the private buyout of Electronic Arts, as well as Oracle’s $18 billion issuance.
With robust M&A deal volume, the bank advised Sycamore Partners in its $15 billion purchase of Walgreens, and Fifth Third Bank on its $12.3 billion acquisition of Comerica. To boost the bank’s advisory services, it launched a Special Advisory Services initiative in January to provide clients with access to a broader range of expertise in categories, such as AI, cybersecurity, digital assets, geopolitics, health care, supply chain, and sustainability.
M&A
Houlihan Lokey
Houlihan Lokey is recognized as the best M&A bank in North America as the firm combines its leading M&A advisory services’ expertise across 10 industries with deep sponsor coverage to successfully execute advisory mandates for an extensive range of clients. The firm topped the advisory rankings by participating in 458 transactions during 2025, according to the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). Many of these deals occurred in the technology sector, where Houlihan Lokey advised Intevac in its sale to data-storage company Seagate Technology in a $119 million transaction.
The firm also served in advisory roles for acquisitions by private equity sponsors in the software segment involving Amtech Software, Aegis Software, and Lightkeeper. These mandates contributed to Houlihan Lokey’s top ranking in the sector by LSEG, with 128 transactions. In financial services, the firm advised on 66 deals under $5 billion in value, including wealth managers GCG Advisory Partners and FSA Wealth Management. The firm’s progress has resulted in solid growth in its franchise with fiscal 2025 revenues of $2.4 billion.
Equities
Morgan Stanley
While market conditions related to US tariff policy slowed ECM issuance during the first half of 2025, Morgan Stanley enjoyed a strong second half of the year.
The bank’s IPO activity included the $1.4 billion offering for cybersecurity firm Sailpoint; the $1.5 billion raise for AI-cloud company CoreWeave; the $864 million IPO for fintech startup Chime; and the $1.2 billion offering for the design platorm Figma. In healthcare, Morgan Stanley also participated in the $7.2 billion Medline IPO. The firm maintained the advisory role recently with Medline’s $3.5 billion secondary issuance.
In September, Morgan Stanley acted as a lead underwriter for Klarna’s $1.4 billion IPO, when the buy-now-pay-later company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The strong issuance market was also reflected in the $3.7 billion offering for Verisure in October. The security services firm listed on Nasdaq Stockholm with a market capitalization of €13.7 billion. The deal is ranked as the largest European listing since 2022 and Sweden’s largest IPO in 25 years.
Debt
BofA Securities
While geopolitical factors and trade disruptions contributed to uncertainty in the financial markets, the environment for issuance in the debt capital markets was on solid footing during 2025 and into 2026, supported by an increasingly accommodative monetary policy stance by the world’s central banks. Bank of America (BofA) Securities, with its extensive global multinational client base, participated in many of the year’s biggest offerings. This placed the firm at the top of the league table, particularly in the US corporate investment-grade segment where the bank nearly cracked the $100 billion threshold with a 9% share of the market.
Notable transactions included the issuance of $2 billion in senior notes for Singapore-based DBS Group, and acting as a lead manager on the World Bank $6 billion benchmark bond. BofA was also a bookrunner on Oracle’s $18 billion bond offering and Dell Technologies’ $4.5 billion issuance of senior notes. Moving into 2026, the bank was a bookrunner in the February $20 billion mega issuance by Alphabet.
