Equities solid, but no new dawn

摘要

A solid first quarter for equity sales and trading across the Street has underscored the growing emphasis on equity and equity derivatives as a key driver of investment banking revenues while the fixed income cash cow continues to lose its gloss with another round of disappointing figures. But far from a new golden era for the equity asset class, a marginal year-on-year revenue increase among the top dozen dealers suggests that any expectation of a widespread business model rotation is premature. "A lot of people got very excited about equity derivatives growth, but in reality they're just unexcited about fixed income, which doesn't look sustainable in its current form at most bulge-bracket banks in the new regulatory environment," said David Escoffier, CEO of Newedge and deputy head of global markets at SG.