JPMorgan and big banks prepare for flood of deals, survey finds 43% of middle-market CEOs expect ‘strategic’ opportunities

Family-run, seed stage and high-growth companies are getting ready for what they expect to be a super-charged year as a four-year backlog of impending M&A deal, caused in part by regulatory hurdles, begins to clear. According to JPMorgan Chase research published today, 43% of mid-size business leaders expect to engage in some kind of strategic partnership or acquisition.

The new survey, which polled more than 1,600 executives who control businesses with annual revenues between $20 million and $500 million, also found that confidence in the national economy jumped 12% since last year to 55% among small business owners and more than doubled from 31% to 65% among midsize business executives.

The survey coincides with multiple M&A promotions and hirings at JP Morgan and other banks, and what Reuters reports could be more than $4 trillion in M&A activity after President-elect Donald Trump takes over later this month.

“Clients' expectations of banks being able to deliver capabilities around working capital management, will be a differentiator,” Brian Lamb, JPMorgan Chase’s managing director and northeast segment head, told Fortune. “What that means to a bank is we need to then be prepared to show up with the right capabilities to support that growth.”

To help meet those demands, JPMorgan hired two new heads of it’s mid-market M&A in September. The following month, Deutsche Bank hired  a new head of North American M&A.

Despite the fact that much of the M&A opportunity results from an expected laissez faire approach from the incoming Trump administration, Lamb says banks looking to prepare for the M&A flood need to be ready to service clients across the U.S. border. In addition to cross-border payments, banks need to be ready with automated reporting capabilities to meet international standards.

Goldman Sachs last month reported that flows between the United States and Europe have seen the strongest momentum—accounting for $267 billion—or 44% of global activity. “As global M&A momentum continues accelerating next year,” the authors wrote, “we expect cross-regional dealmaking to continue growing in both depth and breadth.”

Risks highlighted by JPMorgan include uncertainty around shifts in global trading patterns, potential tariff impacts and geopolitical tensions.

Beyond M&A investments, 51% of the JPMorgan’s mid-size business respondents plan to add headcount, an increase of 7% over last year. Sixty-four percent plan to invest more to support sales by adding products, spending more an ads and increasing social media campaigns, according to the report.