What are banks doing to cope with the new dealmaking ecology? Some of this you’ve heard. TheDeal has a summary of what banks are doing to retool their M&A groups. Here are the highlights -

• M&A activity is down; but there are more, smaller deals. Hence… no mass layoffs of the rank and file … at least yet.
• Away from private equity — firms are “beginning to reallocate some of their M&A bankers away from large, private equity-sponsored deals toward the middle market, international deals, hostile transactions and defensive strategies.”

• Talent and emphasis are moving international, and not just the junior bankers (Deutsche Bank’s new M&A chiefs will be London-based — Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs global M&A are also Europe-based
• Hybrid, dedicated or industry? Unlike the post-dot com era, seems that the structure that banks have already, they are committed to. Where there are dedicated M&A groups, they are here to stay. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and UBS are all committed to their dedicated groups –”"We have felt for a very long time that it is highly important to have a differentiated M&A group … The group benefits from the collective learning, from being co-located,” he adds. Boublik says it is unlikely that the firm would change its M&A structure anytime soon,” Morgan Stanley’s co-head of M&A in the Americas Michael Boublik tells the Deal. (Credit Suisse is hybrid — junior bankers are in a centralized M&A group; directors+ are in industry groups; BoA is hybrid; Goldman is industry-structured).
• Not much info on how Citi, Merrill and JPM will shape up. Any word from our readers on this, at least from a M&A group structure perspective?