William Vereker is wary of appearing too upbeat about the calibre of deals UBS has been working on during the first months of 2016. After all, as he puts it, “one quarter doesn’t make a year”.

But the M&A league tables show that UBS ended the first quarter ranked third in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, for mergers and acquisitions work - up from sixth a year ago - making it the highest ranking European bank in the market.