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STORY: Wall Street's biggest banks reported rising investment banking fees in the third quarter fueled by more deals and corporate debt issuance, and said their pipeline of new activity looked healthy, although some areas are slower to rebound.

Buoyant stock markets and increased expectations of a soft U.S. economic landing are boosting banker confidence the year will finish on a high, executives said.

"Banking's a very ripe environment," said Smead.

"The economy is going to be really good," said Smead, adding that a strong U.S. economy was "setting up an environment where if you're a bank, you're going to have trouble finding a recession that would hurt your lending in the interim or hurt your own loss provisions and that's causing banking to be a fabulously good business."