The number of M&A deals hit a new peak but the size of acquired assets fell last year, according to new data.

If readers have got the impression that there has been a lot of merger and acquisition activity in the global wealth management business, then this perception is backed by the reality of new data. According to Scorpio Partnership, the consultancy, there were a total of 124 deals last year - the largest number in the eight years it has tracked this activity.

However, while the volume of M&A deals hit a high, total assets under management acquired in these transactions dropped to $408.5 billion, below levels seen in 2014, the firm said. (In 2014, transaction AuM was $461.4 billion.)

“Looking closer at the deals concluded, it is clear that a much higher number of deals took place among much smaller wealth managers. Notably, the volume of AuM changing hands is substantially down from 2013 when $780 billion was traded,” said Sebastian Dovey, managing partner at Scorpio.

The past year has seen a number of consolidation moves, such as the purchase by Banque SYZ, the Swiss bank, of Royal Bank of Canada’s Swiss private bank, and the deal by Union Bancaire Privée, the Geneva-headquartered bank, to buy the non-UK private banking business of Royal Bank of Scotland. As of today, there are widespread rumours of an imminent deal by Barclays to sell its Asian private bank; last year, Barclays sold its US private bank. Rising compliance costs, a hunger for scale and focus on core activities have combined to drive much M&A activity.

Scorpio said the desire for quality deals has pushed valuations upwards. In 2015, deal values as a percentage of AuM (a common metric), rose to 2.14 per cent from 2.06 per cent. Businesses with AuM between $5 billion and $10 billion attracted the highest multiples relative to the market.

Another trend, Scorpio said, is the scale of deals among a select group of Swiss firms. Deals among Swiss firms were on average the largest, with average AuM acquired at $9.4 billion.

“2015 may eventually be labelled as the year the Swiss regained confidence with a select group of wealth managers choosing this year to support growth through their corporate cheque book,” Dovey said.

Across the eight years of Scorpio’s Deal Tracker analysis, there were a total of 494 deals, involving $2.6 trillion of AuM. Deal price premiums for smaller firms (below $1 billion of AuM) have risen 1.5 times since 2013, while larger firms have seen a downward trend. Almost a third of the deals last year involved independent financial advice businesses.