NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - This year is, literally for once, unprecedented on Wall Street. In the first six months, global mergers and acquisitions reached a record, with volume climbing 131% to $2.8 trillion. Mega-deals, those greater than $10 billion, jumped 82%, according to Refinitiv. Every aspect of the market was strong – cross-border transactions about doubled, while U.S., Asian, and European deals all surged. In Japan dealmaking reached a 14-year high.

The biggest impediment isn’t whether a deal can be done, but whether someone is around to do the legwork to complete it. While Morgan Stanley (MS.N) read more and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) have called their bankers back into the office, Citigroup (C.N) is trying a more flexible policy, perhaps in the hope that it can lure more worker bees to come on board.

Jane Fraser’s bank might need the help – it comes in fourth in the M&A league tables, behind Goldman, JPMorgan (JPM.N) , and Morgan Stanley, losing almost 6% of its market share compared to last year. With the business in a sweet spot read more , few may notice, for now. (By Lauren Silva Laughlin)

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