Investment banks scoop £5bn from UK firms racing to raise cash

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Investment banks scoop £5bn from UK firms racing to raise cash to see them through the pandemic

By Daily Mail City & Finance Reporter

Published: | Updated:

Investment banks have scooped £4.9billion from UK firms this year as desperate companies scrambled to raise cash to see them through the pandemic.

The likes of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citi raked in eye-watering fees as lenders across the world bagged an all-time high of £92billion in fees in 2020, according to data from Refinitiv.

The UK alone has now generated more than £1billion worth of investment banking fees every quarter of the year for the past four years.

The likes of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citi raked in eye-watering fees as lenders across the world bagged an all-time high of £92bn in fees in 2020, according to Refinitiv

During the pandemic, companies starved of cash during lockdowns took out more loans. 

Fees earned from debt underwriting in the UK totalled £1.2billion in 2020, a 28 per cent increase on last year and the highest since Refinitiv’s records began in 2000. 

Despite the economic downturn, many bankers will be hoping for hefty bonuses reflecting their success.

Lucille Jones, a deals intelligence analyst at Refinitiv, said: ‘We saw a surge in capital markets activity in the UK in the second quarter– £4.9billion worth of investment banking fees has been generated in the UK so far during 2020, 3 per cent more than the value in 2019.’

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