Total System ServicesInc.'s $2.35 billion purchase of TransFirst Holdings Corp. from was the largest dealin the financial technology space during the first quarter, helping to propel to the topof the financial adviser ranking for the period by deal value with $2.45 billion,according to SNL Financial data.

Ranking just behind Credit Suisse in the first-quarter leaguetables for financial technology deal value were Bank of America Corp.'s Bank of America Merrill Lynch andGCA Savvian Advisors LLC,both of which advised Total System Services. Also working on the transaction wereGoldman Sachs Group Inc.unit Goldman Sachs & Co.and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'sJ.P. Morgan Securities LLC,which advised TransFirst Holdings along with Credit Suisse.

In another financial technology deal, Credit Suisse and advised Opus Bank in itsacquisition of PENSCOServices LLC, a transaction with an announced deal value of $103.7 million.

Wells Fargo &Co.'s Wells Fargo SecuritiesLLC advised Nasdaq Inc.on its $1.1 billion deal to acquirethe parent of International Securities Exchange Holdings Inc. from Deutsche BörseAG, which helped the investment bank top the securities and investments league tableranking by deal value for the first quarter.

Following Wells Fargo in the rankings were Azrack & Co.,Grail Partners LLC, Morgan Stanleyand the Royal Bank of Canadaunit RBC Capital Markets LLC.RBC Capital Markets and Azrack are advising LeggMason Inc. in its pending deal to acquire Clarion Partners Holdings LLC from . Morgan Stanley andGrail Partners are advisers for Lightyear.

The specialty finance space was relatively slow in deal announcementsfor the quarter compared with the year-agoperiod. No financial adviser handled a transaction approaching $1 billion in dealvalue in 2016, while the first quarter of 2015 included Fortress Investment Group LLC's announcement OneMain Holdings Inc. for $4.25 billion. For the first partof 2016, Apollo Commercial Real EstateFinance Inc.'s agreement tobuy Apollo ResidentialMortgage Inc. was the largest announced transaction by deal value involvingfinancial advisers, at $464.7 million. HoulihanLokey Inc. and Morgan Stanley shared the top spot in deal value forthe specialty finance space, with each notching adviser credit for the Apollo Residentialtransaction. Houlihan Lokey advised Apollo Commercial Real Estate, and Morgan Stanleyadvised Apollo Residential.

SNL Financial datais an offering of S&P Global Market Intelligence.