After a prolonged slowdown, the investment banking (IB) business at Bank of America $BAC BAC is staging a notable comeback, fueled by a cyclical rebound in global dealmaking and improving capital markets conditions. Because of rising interest rates and muted corporate activity, BAC’s IB business performance was weak in 2022 and 2023 (the company’s total IB fees plunged 45.7% in 2022 and declined 2.4% in 2023).
However, in 2025, there was a resurgence in mergers and acquisitions (M&As), particularly in large, strategic transactions. Corporates started regaining confidence amid stabilizing macro conditions, leading to a pickup in advisory mandates, especially in sectors like technology, healthcare and energy, where consolidation and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven investments accelerated deal flow. This helped strengthen BofA’s advisory revenues meaningfully (advisory revenues increased 13.5% year over year in 2025), as the company benefitted from its deep relationships with large-cap clients and its ability to execute complex, cross-border deals.
Along with this, the broad-based recovery across capital markets has been boosting underwriting activity across both equity and debt segments. Equity capital markets, which were largely dormant during the rate-hike cycle, have seen renewed traction as IPO pipelines rebuild and secondary offerings increase. At the same time, debt capital markets activity has been solid, with companies refinancing existing obligations and locking in funding amid expectations that rates may gradually stabilize.
Thus, Bank of America, with its strong positioning across leveraged finance, investment-grade debt and structured products, is well-placed to capture this demand. Its scale and integrated platform, spanning corporate banking, markets and advisory, has enabled it to cross-sell effectively and deepen client engagement, translating into higher fee generation. While BAC’s equity issuance fees declined 11.6% in 2025, its debt issuance fees rose 10.7%. Overall, the company’s IB fees in the Global Banking segment increased 8.4% year over year in 2025.