ATHENS: Retrenching and cost-cutting European investment banks are on course to lose market share to their bigger US rivals for the 10th straight year in 2015, a startling retreat that leaves the continent in danger of having no global champion.
The top dozen European investment banks have taken just 20.7 per cent of global investment banking fees so far this year, down almost a third from a peak of 29 per cent in 2003, according to Thomson Reuters data. Their share has fallen every year since 2005.
The top eight US banks, meanwhile, had 35.7 per cent of the market so far this year, their highest since 2007, although still below their 44.3 per cent peak in 2001 before boutique firms began absorbing a larger share of mergers deal revenue.
The Thomson Reuters data covers bond underwriting, equity underwriting, loans and merger and acquisition income, but not trading income.
