<\/p>\n
Strong capital markets drive revenues, profits higher in Q4.<\/p>\n
Bolstered by strong capital markets businesses, the large, global investment banks based in Europe reported robust fourth quarter results \u2014 and are poised for a solid 2025, says Moody\u2019s Ratings.<\/p>\n
In a new report, the rating agency said that the big six European banks \u2014 Barclays plc, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings plc, Societe Generale and UBS Group AG \u2014 finished strong in 2024, with fourth quarter pre-tax profits rising by 45% to a combined US$17.4 billion, driven by their strong domestic franchises, along with robust corporate and investment banking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAggregate revenue grew 8% in the quarter, driven by 24% growth in capital markets revenue, reflecting continued strong market activity and a rebound in deal activity,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Moody\u2019s noted that all six banks grew their investment banking and capital markets revenues in the fourth quarter, with investment banking revenues rising 21%, revenues in fixed income, currency and commodities rising 22%, and equity revenues up 28%.<\/p>\n
The banks\u2019 wealth and asset management businesses also continued to benefit from strong financial markets, which bolstered fee and commission income due to steady client inflows and increased client activity \u2014 offsetting slightly weaker net interest income that followed rate cuts by the European Central Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect profit to remain solid, though margin pressure from declining interest rates as well as potentially lower client activity and falling asset prices present risks to the firms\u2019 asset and wealth management businesses,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the revenues generated by the banks\u2019 investment banking and capital markets businesses, \u201cwill remain volatile and subject to market conditions and competition,\u201d it noted.<\/p>\n
Against the backdrop of rising revenues, the banks\u2019 operating expenses declined by 3% in the fourth quarter, and loan loss provisions remained moderate, Moody\u2019s said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe credit environment remains benign, despite the difficult macroeconomic outlook,\u201d the report said, adding, \u201cMost banks expect charges to remain at moderate levels in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless the economic outlook deteriorates more broadly, further additions to reserves will be driven mostly by idiosyncratic loan-specific concerns and will likely remain modest. Commercial real estate fundamentals remain weak, particularly for offices, but the firms exposed to this asset class have already built reserves for these exposures, and charge-offs against these portfolios declined in the fourth quarter,\u201d it noted.<\/p>\n
The big banks\u2019 capital and liquidity positions remain strong too, Moody\u2019s said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect capital to remain largely stable in light of relatively stable profitability outlooks and conservative payout strategies safeguarding the continued build-up of capital and in line with the banks\u2019 targets,\u201d it said \u2014 adding that liquidity is expected to stay solid in 2025.<\/p>\n
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Strong capital markets drive revenues, profits higher in Q4. Bolstered by strong capital markets businesses, the large, global investment banks based in Europe reported robust fourth quarter results \u2014 and are poised for a solid 2025, says Moody\u2019s Ratings. In a new report, the rating agency said that the big six European banks \u2014 Barclays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bez-rubriki"],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HSBCStandard-Chartered-22-800x445.jpg",800,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HSBCStandard-Chartered-22-463x348.jpg",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HSBCStandard-Chartered-22-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"full":["https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HSBCStandard-Chartered-22.jpg",800,533,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3484,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3482\/revisions\/3484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relinvestmentsgroup.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}