The past year was a testing one for investment banking and capital markets. The benign US interest-rate environment, which had enabled the industry to post record profits on the back of fixed-income trading, turned mid-year, leading to a climate of uncertainty.
Growth in the global economy hung in the balance; equities generally remained range-bound; the M&A revival petered out before it really got going; market volatility increasingly flat-lined; and cash-rich corporates remained on the sidelines, passing up the opportunity to stockpile cheap...Read more
In an industry with increasingly high barriers to entry, precious few firms have the courage and confidence to challenge the incumbent investment banking oligopoly on its own terms. One firm did just that in 2004, forcing its way towards the top of its chosen businesses and aggressively pushing its own agenda, with stunning results. Barclays Capital is IFR’s 2004 Bank of the Year.
