Fees during the third quarter of 2021 amounted to $35.3 billion, which was 12 percent lower when compared to the second quarter of this year.

The Refinitiv report said, “The Americas contributed 53 percent of all fees generated globally with $61.7 billion, a 28 percent uptick compared to 2020 levels and the highest percentage since 2013. Imputed fees in the EMEA region increased 22 percent to $26 billion during the first nine months of 2021, driven by year-over-year gains in the UK and France. Powered by a 4 percent increase in North Asia, total investment banking fees in Asia-Pacific and Japan hit $28.1 billion with a 7 percent uptick compared to 2020.

Equity capital markets underwriting fees amounted to a record $30.1 billion during the first nine months of 2021, a 36 percent increase compared to 2020 levels, powered by record IPO issuance during the period.

Fees from global financials-related activity led all other sectors to $36.3 billion, up 38 percent compared to a year ago and accounting for 31 percent of all fees globally.

Similarly, fees collected from the technology sector totaled $12.4 billion, an increase of 46 percent compared to a year ago while industrials fees totaled $11.4 billion, up 8 percent.

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During the first half of the year, the number of unicorns in the UK has also doubled. Out of the 112 tech unicorns in the country, 40 of them are from the financial technology sector.

Katja Palovaara, fintech programme lead at Tech Nation told the media, “As the UK’s flourishing fintech sector continues to drive more investment than ever before, our fintech companies are not just disrupting traditional financial sectors; they are working alongside them to ensure that everyone has the tools and knowledge they need to succeed financially.”

“Many of these fintechs are not only focused on helping people earn more and invest better, but on making the world a better and fairer place. We can’t wait to see what they do next.”

According to a KPMG report published earlier this year, the UK fintech sector has seen £18 billion worth of deals in the first half of this year, placing the UK in second after the UK. KPMG said that the UK was given a one-off lift by the $14.8 billion purchase by the London Stock Exchange of the financial data provider and Bloomberg rival Refinitiv.

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The country is also home to the Tadawul Stock Exchange in Riyadh that registered around a 27 percent rise in market value since the beginning of 2020, just when Covid-19 was beginning to show its impact on the world economy. The overall index registered an average increase of only 1.6 percent, and it easily supersedes the 14.2 percent increase during the MSCI World Index of all countries.

. Peru and Colombia also registered drops of more than 20 percent. Coming to the Middle East countries, Egypt witnessed a decline of 6.5 percent and Qatar registered a very slow increase of 1.2 percent. After Saudi Arabia, UAE stood second in the post-pandemic market, registering a 21.3 percent rise.

Tarek Fadlallah, chief executive of Nomura Asset Management in the Middle East told the media, “The Saudi authorities were relatively quick to react with a series of measures, especially relating to smaller businesses, to help ease the burden of the pandemic economic effects, and the market has reacted to that.”

Saudi Arabia also received praise from the International Monetary Fund for tackling the pandemic efficiently along with bringing reforms to its capital markets which helped enhance its positions as the biggest equities trading hub in the Gulf.

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