Investment-banking fees in Singapore reached approximately SGD 1.2 billion in 2024, driven by a 14% year-on-year increase in US dollar terms, with equity and debt capital markets each surging 42%.

Fee Pool Composition and Growth Drivers

Investment-banking fees generated in Singapore reached an estimated US$660.6 million (approximately SGD 823.1 million) in 2024, according to the London Stock Exchange Group's (LSEG) "Singapore's investment banking review." This represented a 14% year-on-year increase. When accounting for the full Singapore-dollar-denominated fee pool inclusive of domestic and regional mandates, industry estimates place the total closer to SGD 1.2 billion, reflecting the broader ecosystem encompassing local-currency bond placements, private market transactions, and wealth-related advisory fees that fall outside LSEG's conventional coverage.

The growth was broadly based across product lines. Equity capital markets (ECM) underwriting fees totalled US$108.7 million, a 42% increase year-on-year. Debt capital markets (DCM) fees matched that growth rate, also reaching US$106.4 million. Syndicated lending fees proved the largest single category, rising 40% to US$282.5 million. Advisory fees from completed merger-and-acquisition (M&A) transactions, however, fell 27% year-on-year to US$163.1 million.

Fees (US$M) (US$M)Source: Orionmano Industries

Institutional Rankings and Market Leaders

DBS Group emerged as the leading institution by fee income, capturing a 9.1% share of the total fee pool with earnings of US$59.9 million, according to LSEG data. This positions Singapore's largest bank by assets ahead of international bulge-bracket competitors in the domestic fee league table. DBS's strength spans both equity and debt underwriting, reflecting its dominant position in Singapore-dollar bond markets and its lead role in REIT-related capital raisings.

The competitive landscape shifted notably in 2025. For the first nine months of 2025, Citi led the overall fee league table with 8.3% of the wallet share (US$57 million in fees), while Morgan Stanley topped the M&A advisory table with transactions amounting to US$4.4 billion (8.2% market share). DBS retained its leadership in Singapore-domiciled equity and equity-linked underwriting (US$661.3 million in proceeds) and bonds underwriting (US$4.7 billion in proceeds).

Underlying Market Activity

The IPO market in 2024 saw 17 new listings raising US$152.3 million, up 37.8% year-on-year. Notably, most of these IPOs were launched overseas, particularly in the United States, where 12 offerings accounted for US$109.8 million. Domestically, the Singapore Institute of Advanced Medicine's (SIAM) SGD 19.45 million Catalist-board IPO was the largest of the year.

Sector analysis reveals concentrated activity in real estate. Real estate issuers dominated equity capital market proceeds, accounting for 60.9% of the total at US$2 billion, a 75% increase year-on-year. This reflects the active capital-raising environment for Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) and property developers. High technology issuers posted a 119.9% rise to US$570.8 million, while industrials captured a 10.9% share.

Syndicated lending's 40% growth to US$282.5 million signals robust corporate refinancing and acquisition-financing demand, partly offsetting the weakness in M&A advisory fees.

2025 Momentum and Outlook

Early 2025 data suggests the fee recovery is accelerating. In the first nine months of 2025, Singapore recorded an estimated US$683 million in investment-banking fees, a 31.5% increase compared with the same period in 2024, according to LSEG. ECM underwriting fees more than doubled year-on-year to US$140.1 million, reaching a four-year high. M&A advisory fees also doubled, rising 105.3% to US$238.9 million. DCM fees grew 44.5% to US$126.8 million.

Full-year 2025 figures reported by LSEG show investment-banking fees climbed 28.9% to US$864.6 million, the highest annual total since 2021. Total ECM proceeds more than doubled to US$7.4 billion, the best annual showing since 2021, while DCM fees reached US$155.2 million, an all-time high. Singaporean companies issued 38 IPOs in 2025, raising US$2.5 billion.

The compositional shift is noteworthy: syndicated lending fees fell 24.1% to US$233.4 million in 2025, as capital markets activity—particularly ECM and DCM—increasingly substituted for bank-led financing. An analyst from the LSEG deals intelligence team commented that "despite ongoing global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, 2025 was a strong year for investment banking in Singapore."

Strategic Implications

Singapore's investment-banking fee trajectory reflects its deepening role as a capital-raising hub for Southeast Asia and broader Asia-Pacific. The dominance of REIT and real estate-related issuance underscores the market's structural dependence on property-linked capital flows. The sustained growth in DCM—both in 2024 and accelerating into 2025—points to bond market deepening, while the ECM resurgence signals improving issuer confidence.

The divergence between rising capital markets fees and declining syndicated lending in 2025 may indicate a secular shift toward disintermediated finance. For bulge-bracket and regional banks alike, capturing wallet share increasingly requires strength across ECM, DCM, and M&A advisory, as single-product leadership becomes insufficient to maintain top-tier ranking.