Description

A breakdown of Q1 2026 investment banking earnings at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley, explaining what drove near-record revenues across all three core divisions and doubling as a primer on how investment banks are structured, what each division does, and what a career in each area looks like.

Learning Objectives

---

1. Determine what drove the broad-based outperformance across all three core investment banking divisions in Q1 2026.
2. Identify the key factors behind the 40% recovery in M&A and ECM fees and assess whether the pipeline supports continued momentum.
3. Explain why volatility is the primary driver of trading revenues and how Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley each captured it differently.
4. Differentiate between the core divisions of an investment bank including ECM, DCM, M&A advisory and markets roles.
5. Assess whether Q1 2026 represents an exceptional one-quarter spike or the beginning of a sustained recovery for investment banking.