At the end of an extremely challenging year for investment banks globally, there are two big surprises in LatAm. One is that the fee pool from core investment banking activities –M&A, DCM and ECM – has actually expanded slightly. The other is that Bank of America Merrill Lynch – which most of the street had written off as a regional player after its troubled merger – has actually doubled its fees and is among the biggest year-on-year improvers in the regional revenue league tables. The merged US-based entity amassed $75.4m in revenue in the year to December 18, putting it sixth overall in LatAm with 5.8% of total wallet share, Dealogic data show. This compares to $37.6m (3.0%) in 2008, when the combined firms’ business ranked ninth. BofA Merrill is still well behind JPMorgan, which came first for fees with $165.6m (12.7%), and it lags the top 5, all of which amassed more than $100m in the year. But its ranking far outstrips the negative expectations of most competitors, who took a wave of senior staff departures and continued trouble in the US as reasons to report the bank’s demise, at least in LatAm. Boosted by a strong high yield run in the second half, BofA Merrill bagged $29.8m in revenue (7.9% share) from DCM, putting it third in the overall LatAm debt ranking. It failed to make the top 10 last year. In M&A, BofA Merrill generated $23.4m fees (5.8%), making it eighth, up from 10th in 2008 when it got $18.4m (3.0%). By volume, BofA Merrill ranks tenth for M&A, sixth for DCM and fifth in ECM, much better than 2008 for the latter 2 categories. Dealogic notes a total LatAm fee pool of just above $1.3bn for the year, up from $1.2bn in 2008. In the top 5 this year for core investment banking revenue are JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, Citi, Bradesco and Santander.