The European houses, and what each is actually strong in

updated 30 sep 2026 · 7 notes · 1 figure · 3 min read · 10 sources

Europe's own banks are rarely what their size suggests. Most are trading and lending houses with an advisory arm attached, a few have retreated from advice altogether, and the one European name that leads the continent's M&A tables by deal count is not a bank balance sheet at all.

Deutsche Bank's investment bank, revenue by business, 2025

Fixed income & currenciestrading€9.6bn
Debt originationdown 14%€1.1bn
M&A advisoryup 1%€536m
Equity originationup 21%€225m

Full-year 2025 revenues in € billions, from Deutsche Bank's results release of 29 January 2026. Advisory, debt origination and equity origination together make up the €1.9bn investment banking and capital markets line.

Deutsche Bank is a trading house with an advisory arm^1,2
In 2025 Deutsche Bank's fixed income and currencies business made €9.6bn; the whole of investment banking and capital markets made €1.9bn, of which M&A advisory was €536m, up 1%. It ranked 13th in Mergermarket's global M&A table by value. A Deutsche M&A seat is a real one, but the bank's weight is on the trading floor.
BNP Paribas leads where the lending is^3,4
BNP Paribas sits in the tier between the bulge bracket and everyone else, and its strength is financing: it led EMEA debt capital markets by volume in 2025, per Dealogic. For a candidate who wants bonds and loans rather than M&A, it is one of the strongest seats in Europe.
HSBC has left Western M&A^5,6
From the first quarter of 2025 HSBC began winding down M&A and equity capital markets in the UK, Europe and the US, keeping more focused advisory teams in Asia and the Middle East. In London or Paris, HSBC's investment banking is now a financing business rather than an advisory one, whatever older guides say.
Credit Suisse no longer exists^2,7
UBS completed its takeover of Credit Suisse on 12 June 2023, merging Credit Suisse Group into UBS Group. Switzerland went from two global investment banks to one, and in Mergermarket's 2025 global M&A table by value UBS ranked 11th. Older guides and forum threads still list Credit Suisse as a separate employer.
Rothschild is private again, and still Europe's busiest adviser^8,9
The Rothschild family holding company Concordia took Rothschild & Co off Euronext Paris on 11 October 2023, buying out minorities at €38.60 a share. As an advisory house it led Europe's 2025 M&A table by number of deals, 119, per GlobalData; it has no balance sheet to lend from, which is exactly why it is counted with the boutiques.
Barclays is the European name in Europe's top five by value^3,9
In GlobalData's 2025 European M&A table by value, Barclays was third with USD 53.5bn, behind Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and ahead of JPMorgan and Bank of America. It is the one European-headquartered bank in that top five, and usually listed with the bulge bracket.
UniCredit is taking over Commerzbank¹⁰
After its 2026 exchange offer, UniCredit held 47.59% of Commerzbank's share capital and 49.65% of its voting rights, per its release of 8 July 2026. The German bank a Frankfurt candidate applies to is now effectively part of an Italian group, and its hiring and strategy should be read with that in mind.

sources (10)