European banks enjoy trading surge: FICC up 45% across Europe, but SG has equities shocker

摘要

Leading European investment banks pulled in US$9bn in fees from fixed-income trading last quarter, up 45% from a year ago and even outpacing the buoyant start to the year by US rivals. The trading boon also continued in April. BARCLAYS and UBS led the charge. UBS's investment bank made a pretax profit of US$709m in the first quarter, more than three times what it made in a weak start to 2019. The unit's annualised return on attributed equity of 22.8% was its highest level for more than four years.