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By Anjuli Davies
LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Revenue at the world's 12 largestinvestment banks fell 25 percent in the first quarter from ayear ago as economic uncertainty and investor caution led to theslowest start since the financial crisis, a survey showed onTuesday.
Investment banks have been hit by a steep decline in oilprices, near-zero interest rates and worries about China'seconomy, which triggered a wave of volatility in financialmarkets at the start of the year, normally the most lucrativeperiod when investors put their money to work.
Trading in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC)divisions, which are particularly exposed to economicconditions, declined 28 percent year-on-year to $17.8 billion,data from industry analytics firm Coalition shows.
Since 2011, revenues in FICC are now down 49 percent andheadcount in that area is down 33 percent, the data shows.Credit and securitisation have experienced particularly steeprevenue declines of 62 percent and 74 percent respectivelyduring that period.
Coalition tracks Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays,BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, GoldmanSachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Societe Generale and UBS.
The downturn comes as banks are having to comply with newregulations forcing them to hold more capital, reducerisk-taking and scale back market-making activities, all ofwhich are squeezing liquidity from an array of capital markets.
Other divisions proved equally dismal, with revenues downacross the board. In banks' equity businesses, a bright spotlast year, revenues were down 20 percent year-on-year in thefirst quarter to $11.7 billion as investors reduced riskappetite.
Since 2011, revenues have fallen on aggregate by 11 percentin equities with headcount declining 12 percent, the data shows.
Investment banking divisions (IBD), which advise on mergersand acquisitions (M&A), and equity and debt underwriting saw a25 percent decline compared to last year to $7.8 billion asreduced deal volumes and a slump in capital markets activitiesweighed.
Equity capital markets (ECM) activity plunged 58 percentyear-on-year to $1.1 billion, after a dearth of new listings inchoppy markets. Since 2011, ECM revenues are now down 59percent.
IBD revenues have fallen 23 percent since 2011 on aggregate,with headcount dropping 14 percent. (Reporting By Anjuli Davies; Editing by Susan Fenton)
