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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Investment bank fees soar to seven-year high, led by JP Morgan, (NYSE: BAC), (NYSE: TRI)

Investment banking fees surged to a seven-year high of $90.1 billion in 2014, driven by deals in North Asia and Southern Europe, with the huge North American market offering ballast in a sector increasingly expected to see some wobbles this year.Fees for deals done in North Asia leapt 28 percent to $7.4 billion while Southern Europe saw a 29 percent jump to $2.6 billion, data compiled by Thomson Reuters shows. North America is still the supreme market for investment banks in absolute terms, generating $47 billion in fees last year. That was three times more than that of Asia as whole.J.P. Morgan topped the rankings for fees last year, taking home $6.3 billion, followed by Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs. Bankers say they expect fees to climb even if a slower China and global geopolitical tensions put the brakes on deal-making this year."There are more active clients in the market and those clients are increasingly entering into more complex structured transactions which necessarily require financial advice," said Jeremy Fearnley, head of M&A for Hong Kong and Southern China for KPMG. "Clients are slowly becoming more accepting of the value of good advice and therefore of higher fees, increasing the yield from transactions."

Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) is a bank holding company and a financial holding company. Shares of BAC fell by 0.78% or $-0.12/share to $15.26. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $14.37 and as high as $18.21. On average, 75557600 shares of BAC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 123402776.

Thomson Reuters Corporation (Thomson Reuters) is a provider of information for the world?s businesses and professionals. Shares of TRI fell by 0.78% or $-0.31/share to $39.56. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $33.21 and as high as $41.44. On average, 757560 shares of TRI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1097777.



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