(Bloomberg) -- So much for a quiet summer. July isn’t over yetand dealmaking is already on track for the busiest third quarter onrecord, with volumes set to surpass $1 trillion.

Some $406 billion of deals have been announced globally thisquarter, including $170 billion in the past week alone. If thislevel of activity continues through September it will beat therecord set over the summer of 2007, when $933.4 billion of dealswere proposed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc.’s $48.4 billion purchase of Cigna Corp. is thebiggest deal of the quarter so far, followed by Israeli drugmakerTeva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.’s $40.5 billion acquisition ofthe generic-drug business of Allergan Plc. Industry specialistsexpect the pace of activity to continue.

“This is the most competitive market for mergers andacquisitions we have seen for some time, and that means manyexecutives and advisers who might otherwise have been enjoying somewell-earned downtime are spending the summer at the deal table,”said Pip McCrostie, global vice chair of transaction advisoryservices at Ernst & Young. “M&A has become the first choicefor future growth.”

Slow August

Proposed deals could take the tally even higher. Switzerland’sZurich Insurance Group said Tuesday it is considering making anoffer for RSA Insurance Group Plc, in a deal that PanmureGordon & Co. analysts say could be worth 5.7 billion pounds($8.9 billion).

To be sure, deal activity tends to slow in August, particularlyin Europe and the U.S., as many bankers and executives take summervacations. Transactions -- including M&A, spinoffs, jointventures and large investments -- often pick up again after LaborDay, which falls in early September in the U.S.

The boom isn’t likely to end anytime soon, according to GoldmanSachs Group Inc.’s Gregg Lemkau, who attributed the rise in mergeractivity in part to the reduced stigma surrounding hostile bids,and to the threat of activism.

“The pace seems to be accelerating and the kind of transactionswe are seeing in the pipeline indicate that will continue,” Lemkautold Bloomberg TV on July 21.

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