, Columnist
A Rare Corner of the Markets That Europe Still Controls
European banks have the biggest share of the green bond market. It might not last.
Clean energy.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In recent years, Wall Street banks have dominated their European counterparts in most areas of global finance. But there’s one hot corner of the capital markets where European firms are staying ahead of their U.S. rivals: the soaring market for green bonds.
Overall, Europe’s banks have been laggards, even in their own backyard. In European mergers and acquisitions, for example, the top four arrangers so far this year are all U.S. firms. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley have a combined 65% of the market, more than twice that of Europe’s investment banks that make the top 10.