A definitive breakdown of the gloomy state on Wall Street

pulse

May 24, 2017 3:05 PM

Don't be fooled by the third-quarter rebound in Wall Street trading revenues.

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Don't be fooled.

While Wall Street bank revenues appeared to bounce back in the first quarter of 2017, with banks posting strong results in fixed income trading in particular, industry-wide revenues were still down on the same period from 2012 to 2015.

According to data from industry consultant Coalition, investment bank revenues at the top 12 banks totaled $42.4 billion in the first quarter, up 14% from the previous year, but still down sharply on previous years.

The data includes revenues for: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Societe Generale and UBS.

Have a look:

Fixed income revenues rebounded in the first three months of the year, hitting $21.4 billion. Still, that's down from $34.7 billion in 2012.

Credit and securitization trading revenues jumped, up 65% and 82% respectively. That helped offset weak revenues in foreign exchange and commodities.

Equities revenues disappointed, falling 8% to $10.8 billion.

Investment banking had a strong first quarter, helped by a strong performance in debt capital markets, and the return of initial public offering activity.

Headcount continues to drop, with another 1900 jobs cut in the 12 months from Q1 2016 to Q1 2017.

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