THE APEX TIMES
A new South and Central America financial advisory M&A rankings report shows Goldman Sachs generating the most advisory value by $10.4 billion, while Bank of America topped the list by number of transactions.
Goldman Sachs and Bank of America emerged as leading financial advisers in South and Central America merger and acquisition activity in the first three quarters of 2026, according to a rankings compilation published by Private Banker International and carried by Yahoo Finance. The table compares investment banks on two different measures: total value of transactions they advised and the number of deals, producing different leaders depending on which yardstick is used.
By the value of advisory work, Goldman Sachs led the region with advisory on $10.4 billion worth of transactions during the Q1-Q3 2026 period. In this measure, the report emphasizes not how many deals advisers participated in, but the aggregate transaction size associated with their advisory mandates.
Bank of America, meanwhile, led by volume. The rankings cite five deals attributed to Bank of America in South and Central America across the same January-to-September window of 2026. Under a count-based view, Bank of America’s position suggests it played adviser roles more frequently than its peers, even if the average deal size associated with those mandates was not the highest in the field.
The results highlight a common dynamic in M&A advisory businesses. Large, high-value transactions can elevate an adviser quickly in “value” rankings, while a busier pipeline can translate into leadership in “deal count” rankings. In practice, the two metrics can point to different strengths, such as ability to win roles on the biggest strategic transactions versus maintaining broad involvement across a larger number of smaller or mid-sized deals.
The regional focus matters as well. South and Central America has a mix of state-linked businesses, family-owned firms, and cross-border industrial and financial buyers. Advisory leadership in such markets often reflects relationships with local corporate clients as well as the ability to structure transactions that cross regulatory and financing boundaries.
Bank of America is widely known for its capital markets and investment banking capabilities in addition to its commercial banking franchise. The company’s advisory performance in a South and Central America M&A ranking fits a broader pattern in which large full-service banks compete for corporate advisory mandates alongside boutique advisers and other global investment banks.
Goldman Sachs similarly operates across underwriting and advisory businesses, and its top position by total advisory value in the region suggests it was attached to transactions at the upper end of deal sizes during the measured period. However, the ranking does not provide deal-level detail in the published summary, limiting how far conclusions can be drawn about which sectors or client types drove its value leadership.
Still, there are notable limits to what the report makes public in the summary used here. The ranking headline does not specify the sectors of the advised transactions, the exact list of deals, which Bank of America counterparties were involved, or how many banks participated in the comparison beyond the two cited leaders. It also does not explain whether “advisory” is measured only for sell-side or buy-side roles, or whether it counts multiple advisers per transaction in a consistent way. Without those methodological details, readers should treat the league table as directional rather than comprehensive for any single bank’s strategic footprint.
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