Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan report bumper second-quarter profits

Investment banking arms of two Wall Street firms benefit from global glut of mergers and acquisitions

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have reported bumper profits for the second quarter as their investment banking divisions continued to ride the global boom in mergers and takeover deals.

The two US banks have been capitalising on the surge in merger and acquisitions activity, which broke records for the second straight quarter in the three months to June, according to Refinitiv data, and helped make up for a slowdown in trading since the start of the year.