Investment banking: The big squeeze
October 12th, 2010EVEN by its own notoriously cyclical standards, investment banking has been on a stomach-churning ride in the past five years. After an apparently golden age, with quarter after quarter of record profits, came the bursting of the debt bubble, a deluge of red ink and bail-outs; then, last year, firms bounced back obscenely quickly thanks to record trading profits. Now they are being squeezed once more, and this time the slump may last.
American banking giants’ third-quarter results, starting with JPMorgan Chase on October 13th, will show that trading revenues fell by perhaps 20-30% from the previous quarter. W
Tags: Banking, Investment Banking