Don't knock it. Warburg Dillon Read, the investment banking arm of UBS, comes out the clear winner in this January's poll of polls. Its virtue is consistency and coverage world-wide. While the US houses have their strengths at home, not one can consistently outperform WDR in every market. WDR may have benefited from the effects of the merger on poll results. But that doesn't detract from its commanding position in every major category: underwriting, trading and advising. It's only major weakness is mergers and acquisitions. Merrill Lynch, last year's number one, is let down by results in Euro-commercial paper, foreign exchange and risk management. Deutsche Bank continues to rise overall, but its weaknesses are equity research, Asian equity and advisory. Citigroup with its Salomon addition looks good on paper, but its low-scoring departments are Eurobonds, equities, and credit and equity research. Last year's second half shuffled the pack and we look forward to a wildly different pecking order next January. David Shirreff reports.

Poll of polls: Overall results
Poll of polls: Underwriting results
Poll of polls: Trading results
Poll of polls: Advising results
Poll of Polls: Methodology

It was a traumatic year for UBS, culminating in the departure of its chief executive and three senior managers. But in investment banking the sum of the two big Swiss banks, puts Warburg Dillon Read (WDR), the investment banking arm of UBS, top of its peer group, on aggregate.

Diversity is the key. "We always were the consistent number two," says Manfred Schepers, global head of debt capital markets at WDR. He accepts that in the Deutschmark and Ecu, or sterling fixed-income trading markets, where respectively Deutsche, Paribas and Barclays may be number one, "but in aggregate our franchises are much broader, and can provide a...