Times are tough for investment bankers working in the Middle East. The total fee pot has fallen by nearly 50% on last year, according to new Thomson Reuters figures, and the first half of 2010 was hardly a stellar period.

As we’ve mentioned previously, there are already mutterings about redundancies within the relatively small regional teams, as a number of investment banks roll out job cuts elsewhere in the world.

M&A fees for the first half of 2011 were just $74.1m, which is down 63% on the same period last year, but still accounts for nearly 40% of total investment banking fees in the region. Debt capital market fees have slipped by 31%, while those in equity capital market actually rose by nearly 5% after an 81% surge in issuance (to $8.3bn) year-on-year.

Within a bleak market, there have been some winners, however. If you’re working in HSBC’s DCM team, for instance, you can feel relatively safe – the bank has remained on top for the second consecutive year. Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole have also risen up the rankings in this area.

Morgan Stanley has continued its ascent up the M&A fee pool league tables to take the top spot, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch – which is thought to be bolstering its Middle East presence – has also done well, as the tables below show.

Perhaps the real question, though, is where jobs are more likely to be created this year. In terms of announced M&A activity with Middle East involvement, BNP Paribas is number one. It has benefited from deal activity in Bahrain, which helps explain its reluctance to leave the kingdom despite the unrest there.

Citi and JP Morgan are also hiring, according to recruitment sources, and it’s easy to see why. The former now tops the Middle East targeted M&A rankings, while the latter has moved up nine places to 3rd in the any Middle East involvement league tables.