Morgan Stanley and Houlihan Lokeyhave emerged as the leading financial advisers in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) arena within the financial services sector for the first three quarters (Q1-Q3) of 2025, by deal value and volume, respectively.
As per an analysis of financial deals database of GlobalData, a data and analytics company, Morgan Stanley advised on transactions totalling $51.5bn, while Houlihan Lokey advised on 33 transactions.
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GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose said: “Morgan Stanley was the top adviser by value during Q1-Q3 2024 as well. It was the only adviser to surpass $50bn-mark in total deal value during Q1-Q3 2025, despite registering a year-on-year drop.
“During Q1-Q3 2025, the multinational investment bank advised on eight billion-dollar deals that also included a mega deal valued more than $20bn. The involvement in these big-ticket deals helped Morgan Stanley secure the top spot by value.
“Meanwhile, Houlihan Lokey registered significant improvement in the total number of deals advised by it during Q1-Q3 2025 compared to Q1-Q3 2024 and resultantly, its ranking by value also jumped from the 10th position to the top position.”
Evercore secured the second spot behind Morgan Stanley in terms of deal value, contributing to $46bn worth of M&A deals. JP Morgan followed closely with $43.7bn in advised deals, with UBS at $39.1bn and Goldman Sachs rounding out the top five with $38bn in advised deals.
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By GlobalDataIn terms of deal volume, Stifel/KBW claimed the second place with involvement in 32 deals. Piper Sandler took the third spot with 31 deals, while Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan secured fourth and fifth positions with 24 and 20 deals, respectively.
GlobalData’s league tables are based on the real-time tracking of thousands of company websites, advisory firm websites and other reliable sources available on the secondary domain. A dedicated team of analysts monitors all these sources to gather in-depth details for each deal, including adviser names.
To ensure further robustness to the data, the company also seeks submissions of deals from leading advisers.
