Goldman Sachs and Houlihan Lokey lead North American M&A financial advisers in Q1–Q3 2026
Goldman Sachs ranked first among mergers and acquisitions (M&A) financial advisers in the North America region by deal value during the first three quarters (Q1–Q3) of 2026, while Houlihan Lokey led the rankings by deal volume.
Data from GlobalData’s deals database shows that Goldman Sachs advised on deals worth $510.5bn, giving it the highest value among the financial advisers included in the table.
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Houlihan Lokey advised on 161 deals, the largest volume recorded during the period.
JPMorgan ranked second by value, with $359bn worth of deals. Morgan Stanley followed with $351.9bn, while Bank of America advised on $217.6bn and Wells Fargo on $215.7bn.
Morgan Stanley ranked second by volume after advising on 119 deals. JPMorgan followed with 110 deals, while Goldman Sachs and Jefferies advised on 107 and 91 deals, respectively.
GlobalData lead analyst Aurojyoti Bose commented: “Houlihan Lokey was the top adviser by volume during Q1-Q3 2025 and maintained its lead by this metric during Q1-Q3 2026 as well, despite a year-on-year drop in the total number of deals advised by it. It also stayed well ahead of its peers.
“Similarly, Goldman Sachs was also the clear winner by value outpacing its peers by a significant margin. It was the only adviser to surpass $500bn mark in total deal value during Q1-Q3 202, recording a 42.1% year-on-year jump in value due to its involvement in big-ticket deals. Goldman Sachs advised on $58bn deals, including 17 mega deals valued more than $10bn. It also held the fourth position by volume during Q1-Q3 2026 and was among the only four advisers to hit triple-digit deal volume during this period.”
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.
