Proprietary trading and capital markets losses stymied first-quarter profits at Icelandic investment bank Straumur-BurdurÃÂ s, leaving them two-thirds lower than in the same period last year.
The bank said in its quarterly results statement today that its business transformation over the past two years, as well as the change in market conditions since the second half of last year, makes a year-on-year comparison ânot meaningfulâ, instead comparing the â¬24.4m ($38.1m) in quarterly pre-tax profits with the â¬1.4m earned in the final three months last year.
