A second successive $2 billion quarter in fixed income trading helped Goldman Sachs to roughly quadruple net profits in the three months to December 31 and ensure that profits, which had been lagging 2015's levels at the halfway stage in 2016, ended the year well ahead.

A "significant" rise in revenues from credit and rates products powered fourth-quarter revenues from fixed income, currencies and commodities trading up 78% to $2 billion from $1.1 billion in a "difficult" final quarter in 2015, Goldman Sachs said in its results on January 18.