Has Barclays' CEO Jes Staley managed to quieten the naysayers with the latest results?
Barclays announced strong first-quarter trading results on Wednesday, with the biggest percentage increase in markets revenues of the leading investment banks.
Fixed income revenue rose by 106% compared with the first quarter of 2019, on the back of growth in both macro products, such as rates and FX, and credit trading. Equities revenue was up by 21% on higher equity derivatives volumes.
Fixed income is the biggest sales and trading group at Barclays, so strong performance across debt instruments was enough to drive a 77% increase in revenue for its global markets division to £2.42 billion.
UBS unveiled a 99% rise in its fixed income revenue on Tuesday, compared with the first quarter of 2019, which was close to the Barclays increase in percentage terms.
