The country’s top bankers are increasingly bullish that cashed-up private equity firms and an investment boom fuelled by a business-friendly Trump administration will make the next 12 months a bumper year for deals.

The major investment banks earned some $US2.5 billion ($4 billion) in fees in Australia last year, according to data published by the analytics division of the London Stock Exchange – an 11 per cent increase on 2023. But that was well short of the boom times in 2021 and 2022, the data shows.