Mediobanca on the back foot

ASK N.M. Rothschild which investment bank headed the rankings for mergers and acquisitions in Italy last year, and it produces a table to show that, as it happens, Rothschild did. Put the question to Morgan Stanley, and this investment bank has figures to back its claim to the top slot. Whatever the spin, though, one thing is clear: international investment banks, and not the Italian banking aristocracy, now dominate business in Italy.