A $600m (€496m) slowdown in profits from proprietary trading in the equities division at Goldman Sachs prevented the firm from reporting record quarterly earnings despite a strong performance in the rest of the business. Investment banking posted its best result for two years.

Proprietary equities trading was one of the few areas of the bank that failed to improve on Goldman Sachs' record performance in the first quarter. Overall, the firm made a net profit of $1.19bn in the second quarter, just $100m shy of its all time record.