Top banks

JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) are on the list of banks that made the most money from IPOs, initial public offerings, in 2021. Market analysts say that will change in 2022.

The latest financial reports from the biggest banks in the US show record profits from commissions on initial public offerings (IPOs) of new companies on the stock market in 2021.

Investment banks act as underwriters, deal guarantors and advisers, helping companies get the best possible valuation on the market when they go public on the NYSE and NASDAQ.

2021 was a record year for new entrants with more than 1,000 companies listing, raising $316 billion. About 61% of these deals, or 613, were through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs.

The rest, or 396, were traditional IPOs.

According to financial markets platform Dealogic, these investment banks participated in the largest number of traditional IPOs on US exchanges of companies from around the world in 2021:

• Bank of America (BAC) had 142 IPOs worth $13.3bn. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) worked on 146 traditional equity IPOs worth $15.2 billion.
• Goldman Sachs Group (GS) completed 147 traditional IPOs valued at $16.2 billion
• Morgan Stanley (MS) advised on 134 IPOs worth $14.3bn.
• Citigroup (C) worked on 87 IPOs valued at $9.25bn.

The largest IPOs are typically handled by multiple investment banks. Morgan Stanley was the lead underwriter on the Rivian IPO (RIVN), which was one of the largest IPOs in history, and Goldman Sachs was the lead bookrunner on the deal.

Goldman Sachs was lead underwriter on some of the largest IPOs in 2021, including dating app Bumble (BMBL); brokerage firm Robinhood Markets (HOOD); South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang (CPNG); Toast (TOST); Olaplex (OLPX); On Holding (ONON) and Figs (FIGS).

Also, the following banks were the best performers in helping to enter the market through SPACs:

• Citigroup: 108 deals worth $21.7bn raised in the market. Cantor Fitzgerald had 60 SPAC deals worth $13.8bn.
• Credit Suisse (CS) did 62 deals worth $12.2bn.
• Goldman Sachs completed 66 deals totalling $15.4bn.
• Morgan Stanley had 46 deals totalling $9.7bn.