This is bad news made even worse by the fact that Wall Street earnings showed that these asset classes are the sick men on The Street already.
Banks lost revenue in sales and trading across the board, and currencies, commodities, and fixed income lead that race to the bottom. Goldman came out losing the least in S&T, having ended the quarter down only 7%. Morgan Stanley's S&T revenue, the biggest loser, was down a whopping 40%.
Basically, what Bloomberg is reporting is that it's going to get worse. So this is dark, very dark.
European securities firms will bear most of the erosion as a tax on financial transactions cuts sales and trading volumes, Deutsche Bank analysts including Matt Spick, wrote in a note to clients today. The next “wave” of regulation on over-the- counter derivatives and clearing may spur smaller competitors to exit the businesses, they said.
There is a small silver lining here for NYC, which is that Deutsche goes on to say the blow to European investment banks will likely have clients heading to the other side of the pond.
So there's that.