How Have Equity Underwriting Fees For The Largest U.S. Investment Banks Changed In The Last 5 Quarters?

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Equity underwriting fees for the largest U.S. investment banks recovered from the dismal $854 million figure in Q1 2016 to just over $1.2 billion in Q2 2016 thanks to an overall improvement in equity capital markets for the second quarter. However, equity underwriting activity levels remain depressed, as evidenced from the fact that the average quarterly fee figure for 2015 was $1.6 billion.

Fees (in $ million) Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015 Q1 2016 Q2 2016
JPMorgan 452 269 314 205 285
Goldman Sachs 595 190 228 183 269
Morgan Stanley 489 250 352 160 266
Bank of America 417 188 286 188 232
Citigroup 296 169 206 118 174
U.S. Top 5 Total 2,249 1,066 1,386 854 1,226
Industry Total 6,546 2,892 3,988 2,387 3,758
=> U.S. Top 5 as % of Total 34% 37% 35% 36% 33%

Total equity underwriting fees for the industry are taken from Thomson Reuters’ latest investment banking league tables. Figures for individual banks are as reported in their quarterly results. Notably, these banks usually capture around 35% of global equity underwriting fees for any quarter.

These banks compete fiercely in the global equity underwriting industry, with top honors in terms of highest equity underwriting fees shifting among Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America from one quarter to another. Citigroup, however, has ranked #5 in terms of fees for nearly every single quarter since the economic downturn – a notable fall from its position at #1 in 7 out of 12 quarters over 2005-07. This change is attributable to the fact that Citigroup reduced its focus on equity underwriting after its bailout, as Bank of America and JPMorgan gained from their acquisitions of Merrill Lynch and Bear Stearns, respectively.

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See the links below for more information and analysis about the 5 largest U.S. investment banks:

See full Trefis analysis for Goldman SachsJPMorganMorgan StanleyBank of America | Citigroup

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