MATTHEW KIRKBY: AGENDA

摘要

For the first time in six years, there was not a single initial public offering (IPO) in the US in September. Globally, IPO volumes collapsed by 58% in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period last year. Equity capital market (ECM) activity as a whole looks less catastrophic, but still fell by 19% in the same period. This bleak backdrop is hardly the ideal environment in which to try to embed an equity culture in a debt-focused bank, particularly one being partially nationalised. But that is just what former ABN AMRO equity bankers must do at their new home within Royal Bank of Scotland's global banking and markets group. When RBS first won the battle to buy ABN, the fate of the equity and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) parts of the business - areas that RBS has keenly avoided - looked far from secure.