It was the year of the bailout, of the Government stepping in with a bucket of money to prevent banks from sinking in a sea of bad loans. And it is the bailout that explains why domestic mergers and acquisition activity in Britain in 2008 hit an eight-year high of £73 billion.

In an ordinary year, perhaps, UBS or Deutsche Bank would be hogging the headlines – the former because it retained its crown as Thomson Reuters’ leading UK M&A adviser; the latter because it fell out of the closely watched top ten table for the first time since 2001, after a complaint by a rival investment bank, an unexpected splash of controversy.

Yet overshadowing them both is the “B” word. It disguised a disappointing year with an illusory headline figure – that £73 billion – and it concentrated the minds of many of the great and the good in the M&A industry. Robin Budenberg, who manages UBS’s government work, for example, and David Soanes, head of capital markets for the bank, were members of a small group that designed the bailout, a team led by Baroness Vadera, Gordon Brown’s closest aide, and Tom Scholar, a senior Treasury official. Peter Sands, the chief executive of Standard Chartered, and Richard Meddings, Standard’s finance director, were key members of the group, as was Nigel Boardman, a partner with Slaughter and May, the City law firm.

UBS’s preliminary mandate for the Government was informal and so was not counted for the Thomson Reuters’ tables. Credit Suisse, which is ranked third in the M&A advisory table, won a Treasury beauty parade to capture the formal mandate advising the Government on the bailout once its structure had been designed by Baroness Vadera’s steering group. UBS got credit for its secondary role of advising Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB on the bailout and on Lloyds TSB’s merger with HBOS.

According to Mr Budenberg: “I think our position reflects the length and strength of our relationships and the fact that people in different times fall back on the people they trust.”

Merrill Lynch, No 2 in the advisory table, was the principal adviser to both RBS and Lloyds TSB. Morgan Stanley, No 4 in the table, advised HBOS.

So much for the bald numbers. Deutsche Bank dropped out of the table because of the Government bailout. It had a small role advising the Treasury on the recapitalisations and initially was credited for the work by Thomson Reuters. However, after a challenge to the media organisation, Deutsche’s credit for the deal was removed. Industry sources say that the complaint came from Credit Suisse, which had the primary mandate to advise Lloyds TSB. Credit Suisse declined to comment.

Deutsche did not comment, but a source close to the bank said that its credit was removed because of an administrative error. Deutsche sent in notification of its mandate too late, said the source, who also asserted that Deutsche would be credited in the final Thomson Reuters league table, which will be published on January 12.

M&A was thin on the ground. The biggest deal not related to the banking bailout was the tax restructuring of Richemont, the French luxury goods company, in which its 15 per cent stake in British American Tobacco was distributed to its shareholders. Goldman Sachs, No 6 on the list, advised Richemont.

Also among the top ten deals is Rio Tinto’s acquisition of Alcoa. Most of the work was done in 2007, but Rio’s banking advisers spent much of this year working on the world’s biggest failed M&A bid, BHP Billiton’s hostile attempt to take over Rio, which collapsed last month.

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