Morgan Stanley (MS) capped off third quarter earnings season for major banks, topping estimates and driving dealmaking fees higher by 56% to $1.4 billion. This earnings cycle has noted a rebound in dealmaking activity from top investment banks, particularly in Morgan Stanley's bond underwriting and M&A advisory units.

"The dealmaking pipeline that's been announced over the last quarter's earnings release is a great sign for all of the sectors. But in particular for banking, you have a lot of pent-up demand for deals, as we saw a dearth of transactions in 2023," PwC US banking & capital markets deals leader Dan Goerlich tells Yahoo Finance.

"And as we move into 2024, a lot of the banks are undertaking initiatives to look at growth across the spectrum, but in particular in organic growth through deals."

Goerlich expands upon his outlook for M&A activity and what it means for larger and regional banks, and how their priorities may differ:

"You have mega banks that are looking at a wide variety of different initiatives that might be product offerings, technology, new plays in fintech, and other businesses like asset and wealth and broker dealers. And then when you get into the regionals, it's a more traditional banking environment where growth might come from bolting on a more traditional merger where you have upscale in leverage and scale, but you also have new products and offerings that might come from that tie up."

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.