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American banks have done best over the course of the year, leaving the Europeans in their wake. Goldman Sachs increased fees by 35 percent to $8.1 billion, with rival giant J.P. Morgan generating $9 billion from investment banking activities. The fee income at CS put it into the top 10 worldwide, with a total of 4.3 billion francs.

Both Swiss giants are yet to report their full-year (UBS is due on January 26, CS on February 18). The third quarters however have given a hint on what is to come, with UBS posting a pretax for its investment bank of $632 million, up 268 percent, with trading income providing the biggest share. CS had a pretax of $464 million, up 49 percent from a year earlier.

CS Gathers Pace

While UBS confirmed the integrated business idea with wealth management at the heart of its bank, CS Chief Executive Thomas Gottstein made it clear what he expected from the investment bank, speaking at the investors' day in December. Gottstein, an investment banker by heart, expects a return on equity of 10 to 15 percent.

At the moment, the bank is still focussing on the overlap between private and investment banking. It appointed veteran banker Christian Meissner to expand the IWM Investment Banking Advisory, which is at the heart of this overlap. UBS in spring had told some of its trading experts to help their colleagues working with super-rich clients at the private bank. Both banks in any case could do with an outperforming investment bank to help maintain the momentum of growth.

Holding Back

Typically, this would entail providing investment bankers with the right kind of monetary incentives. But that's the tricky part, given the global recession. A splurge of bonus payments for pin-striped bankers wouldn't go down too well. Even Wall Street has pledged to show restraint, with Bank of America for instance deciding to keep the pool of payments steady. The European Central Bank (ECB) has told its bankers to show utmost restraint in paying bonuses.

In the third quarter of 2020, operating costs at UBS' investment bank added 17 percent to $1.8 billion, owing largely to higher personnel costs. Over at arch-rival CS, the compensation remained steady from a year ago, at $940 million.

CS investment bankers at least won't be expecting a warm rain of money come February. Gottstein recently said that in general, bonuses would tend to fall this year out of a sense of solidarity and social responsibility.