The two big Swiss banks remain top players among the world’s investment banks. A group of competitors seem to pull ahead though and European banks have to work hard to recover lost ground from their U.S. rivals.
U.S. investment banking is back where it used to be ten years ago – before the financial crisis, which was the result of damaging practices prevalent in the industry. The top five places in a list of the world’s investment banks are taken by institutes based in the U.S., according to a study published by Coalition research institute, cited by «AWP» newswire.
J.P. Morgan tops the list (see table below). The Swiss companies UBS and Credit Suisse (CS) barely make it into the top 10 with their investments banks.
1. J.P. Morgan
2. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup
3. Bank of America Merrill Lynch
4. Morgan Stanley
5. Deutsche Bank
6. Barclays
7. Credit Suisse
8. HSBC
9. UBS
U.S. companies generated about two thirds of all earnings by investment banks in 2016. Five years ago, the U.S.-based banks and their European rivals had about 50 percent each. The research institute Coalition however expects European companies to recover some of the lost ground this year.
Asset Management and Wealth Management
How well the Swiss investment banks will fare in this hotly disputed industry remains to be seen. CS is looking to stabilize its business after writing down billions of Swiss francs at the trading division last year. It is promoting an expansion of the asset management division.
UBS meanwhile is focusing on the corporate advisory business and equity trading and uses the investment bank mainly as a provider of funds for wealth management.
