Turn the clock back five years and Merrill Lynch dominated the global bond markets, long before Deutsche Bank and Citigroup started slugging it out for top spot.
Merrill rounded off its dominance during the 1990s by topping the rankings of international bond bookrunners for four years between 1997 and 2000 but the US bank's star has since waned. In the past three years, it has slipped outside the top five banks and this year ranks ninth among global bond bookrunners â its lowest ranking in more than a decade, according to data provider Dealogic.
