Mega-deals drive European financial services M&A in Q1

Four landmark transactions illustrate a sector increasingly favoring bold bets over organic growth.

European financial services M&A recorded $47.6 billion across 235 deals in the first quarter of this year, as a cluster of mega-deals reshaped the sector’s consolidation landscape.

According to PitchBook’s Q1 2026 Global M&A report, just four landmark deals accounted for two-thirds of the quarter’s total transaction value in the European financial services sector. If this pace holds, annual deal value would reach $190 billion, on par with 2025, which was the highest in the past 10 years.

Globally, mega-deal activity in financial services has accelerated sharply, with 23 transactions above $1 billion in Q1 totaling $108.9 billion—up from 19 deals worth $66.2 billion in the same period last year.

Asset management is facing acute structural pressure. PwC’s 2025 Global Asset and Wealth Management Survey found that 89% of asset managers reported profitability pressure over the past five years, with the industry’s cost-to-income ratio stuck at around 68%. For many firms, scale through acquisition has become the clearest path forward.

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The quarter’s defining deal was Nuveen’s £9.9 billion (about $13.5 billion) acquisition of Schroders, one of the UK’s oldest asset managers. The transaction reflects the persistent valuation gap between London-listed companies and their US peers, as well as the mounting pressure on mid-sized managers to compete on a global scale.

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NatWest’s $3.7 billion acquisition of wealth manager Evelyn Partners and EQT’s $3.7 billion deal for secondaries firm Coller Capital round out the picture. For NatWest, the rationale is fee income diversification as net interest margins normalize. For EQT, it is direct exposure to the secondaries market, which has expanded rapidly as PE exit routes have remained constrained.

According to Scope Ratings’ 2026 European Banking Outlook, banks with diversified business models, including wealth management, are positioned to outperform as earnings shift away from rate tailwinds toward fee income and loan growth.