The proportion of companies interested in buying or selling in the year ahead has jumped significantly from last year and Citizens Bank anticipates the political environment could throw fuel onto that fire.

Middle-market companies interested in selling their business increased from 34 percent to 53 percent this year, while mid-market companies interested in buying jumped from 60 percent to 73 percent this year in Citizens Commercial Banking Middle Market M&A Outlook.

“We’ve been doing the survey now for six years so we’re starting to be able to piece together some trends,” said Jerry Sargent, president of Citizens Bank’s Massachusetts operations.

Sargent characterized the underlying reasons for the surge in M&A interest as an intensification of trends the bank has been keeping its eye on for a while now.

Specifically, he said, “We have a Baby Boom generation that is getting to the point where they’re beginning to think about transitions of their firms. We’re now somewhat long dated from the Great Recession and businesses have been generally struggling to organically grow their top line.”

Fatigue is setting in at businesses on the sell side, Sargent said. They’re having difficulty growing organically and they suspect valuations may be topping out. That’s compounded by the low interest rate environment and regulatory struggles many companies face. On the buy side, companies also struggle to grow organically, so they’re looking increasingly to smaller acquisitions that could add another product to their platform or increase efficiencies, as opposed to transformative deals.

That’s a perfect recipe for a heavy M&A environment.

For the report, Citizens surveyed 600 business leaders whose companies brought in annual revenues between $5 million and $2 billion. Sargent said the survey was conducted before the election, but he anticipated that the pro-business tone of the incoming presidential administration could “throw a little gasoline onto the fire.”

While about 30 to 40 percent of global mid-market M&A activity happens in the United States, Sargent expects that figure could be even higher in the year ahead.

Locally, he said the technology sector will likely drive M&A activity in Boston. Health care is another potential area, though that could very much depend on the fate of the Affordable Care Act, he said.

For bankers, that will mean middle market clients on both the buy and sell sides will seek out help with valuations, due diligence and negotiations.

“All of those things for us create a backdrop where I expect us to be pretty busy,” Sargent said. “We hope to be right in the thick of things.”