Goldman Sachs used to be the undisputed heavyweight champion of the merger world, and even if Lloyd Blankfein never wore a World Wrestling-style belt to negotiations to indicate such, it was implied. This year, GS retained #1 standing in the Thomson Reuters M&A metrics, but according to Dealogic, Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan leapfrogged ahead:

The loss of its status as leader in one of the two rankings adds to the list of indignities [Goldman Sachs] suffered in 2008. Goldman converted into a bank-holding company amid a 65% drop in its stock so far this year. It also serves as a reminder of the doubt that the financial crisis has cast on the independent securities-firm model.

J.P. Morgan advised on 350 deals announced in 2008 valued at $818.2 billion, according to preliminary figures from Dealogic. That compares with 295 deals valued at $755.6 billion for Goldman. Last year, J.P. Morgan was third after Goldman and Morgan Stanley, according to the data.

Thomson Reuters includes the value of some things like options and spinoffs that Dealogic doesn’t account for, thus the discrepancy. Both providers rank JPM A#1 in Europe this year, which means Jamie Dimon will be strutting around the EU like a peacock before you know it.

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Aside: we’d like to wish a warm welcome this morning to NYT readers who spotted the Bandit in the Style section. They took pictures of me, too, but apparently their editors deemed the Bandit better looking. Alas.