Summer is rarely a good time for investment banking. Holidays beckon, investors down tools and activity tails off. In good years, a quiet third quarter follows a robust second quarter and precedes a successful end of year. But this year is proving to be tougher than most, particularly for banks' sales and trading arms.
Third-quarter figures were almost uniformly bad. Morgan Stanley reported a more than halving in fixed-income net revenues to $846m, compared with the third quarter of 2009, while revenues from equity sales and trading fell 23% to $925m. At Goldman Sachs, net revenues from fixed income were 37% lower at $3.8bn, while equity net revenues were 33% lower at $1.9bn.
