For investment banks 2012 has been a year of reassessing business strategies. Many realised they had to respond to changing conditions, but often were not sure how to do it most effectively. Fixed-income revenues, for example, rose at most banks, but it didn’t stop some from reducing or exiting their debt businesses.

In the first nine months of this year, the boom of issuance in the primary markets pushed fixed-income, currencies and commodities revenues up 11%, compared with the same period last year.