Global investment banking fees up 3 percent in first nine months LONDON (Reuters) - Fees earned for global investment banking services rose 3 percent in the first nine months of 2013 from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. Fees from services ranging from mergers and acquisitions advisory to capital markets underwriting, earned investment banks a total of $56.8 billion in the nine-month period. JPMorgan retained its top ranking in the investment banking league table, taking in $4.4 billion in fees or 7.8 percent of the total. Second-place Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC.N) booked fees of $4 billion. The top five spots were filled by U.S. banks, with rankings unchanged from the previous year. The third quarter, however, was the slowest for fees since 2009, according to the data. Fees totaled $15.7 billion, 24 percent lower than the previous three months. For the full nine-months, fees in the Americas were 7 percent up on the same period last year at $32.5 billion. In Europe and Africa and the Middle East fees rose 2 percent and 9 percent respectively. Asia Pacific saw fees down 8 percent. Fees from debt capital markets transactions accounted for 31 percent of the total, a modest rise versus the previous year. Equity capital markets saw fees climb 20 percent year-on-year, while fees from merger and acquisition deals fell 16 percent. For a full breakdown of first quarter fee estimates, click: here Reporting by Clare Hutchison; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle