The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) recently published three new reports on broker-dealers, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and business development companies (BDCs).
The report on broker-dealers provides information on registered broker-dealers and their activities over the period 2010-2024. It includes an analysis of the industry, the structure of activity of different types of broker-dealers, and the revenues and expenses of broker-dealers. There were approximately 3,340 broker-dealers with total assets of approximately $6.4 trillion as of the end of 2024. The number of broker-dealers declined by approximately 30 percent from 2010 to 2024, but assets grew by approximately $1.7 trillion. These results show a trend of industry consolidation.
“It is important to understand the current status of markets and how they have been changing,” said Robert Fisher, acting chief economist and director of the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis. “Providing such information helps all of us to understand how the markets are functioning.”
The analysis of merger & acquisition provides a recent analysis of the U.S. mergers and acquisitions market, including an analysis of the characteristics of a typical deal and the geographic location of the acquirers and targets. The market has exhibited cyclicality such that years with favorable overall market performance were generally associated with higher deal volume. The average deal value was $3.5 billion, while the median deal value was $0.5 billion.
The report on Business Development Companies provides data extracted from disclosures filed by BDCs with the Commission. The BDC Data Sets provide a schedule of investments report, detailed financial data sets, and a summary non-financial data set.
DERA conducts detailed economic and statistical analyses to advise on Commission matters and helps identify and respond to issues, trends, and innovations in the marketplace.