The US is on course to take Europe’s record for monthly issuance in the primary equity markets, which has stood for almost nine years, as a wave of multi-billion dollar recapitalisations by domestic banks have driven volumes to close to $50bn (€36bn).

US equity capital markets volumes have hit $48.8bn so far this month and are on the verge of overtaking the record regional total set by Europe in June 2000, when companies raised just over $49bn, according to Thomson Reuters.