Traders of Europe's largest investment bank earned the highest quarterly revenues in at least a decade after Trump-induced volatility in financial markets sparked craziness on both sides of the Atlantic.
In recent weeks, UBS, BNP Paribas, Social Générale, Barclays and Deutsche Bank reported that total revenue from stock and fixed income transactions was 13 billion euros since at least 2015, with fixed income transactions being the highest overall quarterly total for five lenders.
European banks' performance reflects the outstanding transaction returns released by their U.S. peers in the first three months of the year, with five Wall Street's largest banks raising nearly $37 billion in combined transaction revenue during the period.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has ushered in a period of economic uncertainty that has triggered wild swings, bond and money markets that have created opportunities for traders.
"Market volatility broadly supports banks' global market operations, just like our case," Socgen CEO Slawomir Krupa told analysts. "From a macro perspective, everyone can manage it."
The first quarter of 2025 set record performances in the market sectors of UBS and BNP Paribas. Swiss lenders earn nearly one-third to USD 2.5 billion (€2.3 billion), while the same period saw transaction revenue of 2.8 billion euros in the quarter.
Deutsche Bank (no longer owns the stock trading business), Barclays reported growth in fixed income, currency and commodity (FICC) at 17% and 21%, respectively, while FICC’s percentage growth in this period compared to the first quarter of 2024.
SOCGEN's trading results are driven by its stock business, which rose by one-fifth to €1.06 billion in the previous year, while revenue in its fixed income sector has declined slightly.
European lenders have changed their fortunes in recent years after generating trivial returns and shareholder spending for much of the past decade, with higher interest rates increasing their net interest income – the difference the interest banks receive from borrowers and paying them to depositors.
However, the bank's trading sector also benefited from the turn of market volatility, beginning with the 1920 pandemic in 2020. Subsequently, the market fluctuated heavily in early 2022 after Russia initiated its invasion of Ukraine and the central bank quickly raised interest rates.
Prior to the most recent quarter, the royal family was the quarter in the first three months of 2022, with European banks having the highest transaction revenue since at least 2015, with five banks totaling €12.8 billion in that period. Credit Suisse was also a major player in European stocks and FICC trading before his death in 2023.
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said last week that Swiss lenders saw a "huge surge in customer activity and volatility" at the beginning of the second quarter after Trump announced a series of "countdown" tariffs on April 2, triggering a market sell-off.
"On some days, trade volume exceeded its peak in common era by about 30 percent," he said.
"This is good for the (Q2) market revenue, which was previously from strong stocks and FICC results (Q1)" said Andrew Coombes, an analyst at Citigroup.
"But[Ermotti]did confirm that there is a certain level of investor fatigue now and has since returned to a more normal trading environment," Coombes added.