A March recovery meant the first quarter trading drop was not as bad as feared for JP Morgan. But the top debt and equity bookrunner worldwide showed just how tough things have been for investment banks by posting its worst start to a year for capital markets revenues since the financial crisis.

The bank opened Wall Street's reporting season on April 13 with a set of results that underlined the challenge facing the world's biggest investment banks, as debt underwriting revenues hit their lowest first quarter total since 2008 and equity underwriting revenues their lowest since 2004.