A look around the top investment banking players in Europe in the current climate quickly confirms the difficulties most have faced since the middle of 2007. An analysis of the individual performance of those banks is inevitably a kind of referendum on their performance in the face of the credit crunch, although they do not operate on a level playing field, and the impact the crisis has had has been determined – at least to some extent – by the country in which the bank operates. An air of optim

When IFR conducted a survey of British investment banking a year ago, all of the major players were in an upbeat mood. At the time storm clouds were beginning to gather over the financial markets, with the fallout from the US sub prime crisis starting to spread overseas, combined with a stalling in leveraged finance activity. Despite these worries, few expected the crisis to be as long standing or as deep as it has proved to be. "This has been the most challenging market I have seen in my career

At the beginning of 2007 those looking at UBS and Credit Suisse would have little doubt which institution would have survived a once-in-60-years financial crisis in best shape. UBS ran its capital markets and investment banking operations conservatively – too conservatively, many of its employees said. UBS had also steered clear of the apparently building excesses. It wasn't the most enthusiastic player in leveraged finance and punched below its weight in structured finance. Its New York traders

Unperturbed by the global credit squeeze and choppy financial markets, Renaissance Capital, Troika Dialog, VTB Capital and Kit Finance are all planning to expand. And growth is expected across new markets and in product areas, as well as by bulking up existing businesses. Brushing off the market downturn and the increasingly bearish investor sentiment towards Russia, Troika and Renaissance are meeting the growing threat from global banks by beefing up equity teams. Both have poached senior staff

Deutsche Bank is the German capital markets leviathan. Its dominant position in the country looks set to increase now that Commerzbank is expected to close down much of the investment banking activities of Dresdner Kleinwort following its acquisition of Dresdner Bank from Allianz. Deutsche has also weathered the credit crunch storm better than many of its global peers. Based on a bearish call on US housing issued by one of its analysts ahead of the rest of the Street, the bank positioned itself

Market leaders BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, along with smaller rivals Natixis and Calyon, have enjoyed differing fortunes since the credit crisis began. It appeared SG might be first to fall in January, when it uncovered a €4.9bn trading scandal and lay the blame at the door of Jerome Kerviel. In the days that followed, most observers expected SG to be acquired, with arch-rival BNP Paribas named as the frontrunner. In the event, SG was probably saved by adverse market conditions and a Frenc

The global credit crisis has hit banks in the Benelux region hard. Such is the extent of the interconnection between national capital markets, even players like Dutch bank NIBC, with its traditional focus on domestic corporate lending, lost heavily through their subprime exposure. Approximately two-thirds of NIBC’s trading book losses were a result of subprime exposure. Yet Dutch banks have, on balance, remained relatively insulated from the global problems, said Claire Curtin, an analyst at Sta

The Spanish economy has ground to a halt. After a 13 year stretch of continuous growth, second quarter GDP slowed to a paltry 0.1% quarter on quarter (QoQ), led by the construction sector, which contracted by an eye-watering 2.4% QoQ. With the worst yet to come, banks will be looking to batten down the hatches. Domestically, the emphasis is on what areas to invest in, rather than prioritising which business lines should be cut, and by how much. "Right now we are playing very defensively" said Ca

Inevitably, the profitability of most Nordic financial institutions has been eroded in line with the times, said Miguel Pintado, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s in Stockholm who covers regional banks. Yet no single bank has supported any major losses, Pintado said, as none had direct exposure to the subprime market. Unlike banks in the UK or elsewhere in Europe, Nordic banks haven’t been forced to increase their capital reserves, and none have experienced a significant loss in revenue. So while

The Eurozone’s third largest economy has often been a laggard in the region over the last 10 years. Since it plunged into negative growth in 1999, the Italian economy has been struggling to get out of first gear. Just as things were starting to look up in 2006 and 2007, global credit woes dragged Italy back into the doldrums again. Economists now expect Italy to sink into recession after the government reported a surprising 0.3% contraction in the second quarter of the year from the quarter befo