Listings boom, trading frenzy fuel record 2020 for investment banks

* Top 12 banks see record 28% revenue growth in 2020

* FICC income spikes on commodities, credit

* Bankers faced job cuts, modest bonuses despite boom

By Lawrence White

LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - A surge in blank-cheque
investment vehicle fundraising and frantic pandemic-related
trading in 2020 boosted investment banks' income by a record 28%
from the year before, a report showed on Friday.

Revenues for the 12 largest investment banks tracked in
research firm Coalition Greenwich's index rose to $194 billion,
the highest annual total for the industry since the survey began
around a decade ago.

The trading bonanza showed how Wall Street and European
banks benefited as the COVID-19 pandemic sparked global
government and central bank action, upending asset prices and
sending investors scrambling for safe havens.

Later in the year banks feasted on the craze for so-called
blank-cheque or special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs),
which raise money to acquire another company without specifying
which one to their investors in advance.

Just one part of a listings boom which also included more
traditional initial public offerings (IPOs), SPACs raised a
record $82 billion last year and the trend has been gathering
steam in 2021, boosting fee income for banks organising the
deals.

Fixed income, currency and commodities (FICC) income rose
41% year-on-year, the Coalition report said, with commodities
revenues hitting record levels as investors sought safe havens
in precious metals and as oil prices surged later in the year.

Central Bank intervention to stimulate flatlining
pandemic-hit economies also drove strong trading in credit
products, except for more complex structured debt which
risk-averse investors largely shunned.

In equities, derivatives volumes hit their highest level in
a decade, Coalition said, but again more complex structured
products underperformed as companies axing dividends in the
first half of the year hit derivatives tied to such payouts.

JOB CUTS

Despite the bumper year, frontline revenue-producing bankers
faced job losses, Coalition said, with positions down 1% from a
year earlier to 48,700 as banks cut structured equity
derivatives jobs in particular on waning demand.

That meant revenue per employee rose across all business
lines, with the trend most evident in FICC where the measure
rose to some $6 million, up 44% from 2019.

Banks kept bonus increases modest even as income soared,
mindful of being seen to splurge too much amid an economic
crisis and looking ahead to likely tougher times this year.

Coalition's index tracks Bank of America , Barclays
, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse
, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC
, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Societe
Generale and UBS.

(Reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)