WhatsApp, Monkey Bar, Buffett: Banking’s 2022 Winners and Losers
- Capital markets eerily quiet, but traders feast on volatility
- Interest income soared, but profits were hindered by reserves
Citigroup’s trading floor.
Photographer: Marc McAndrews/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
It was a weird year on Wall Street.
While capital markets sputtered for much of the year, volatility pushed trading revenues to their highest levels in well over a decade. With inflation running at a 40-year high, banks were forced to set aside billions in credit reserves. That hindered profits even as the Federal Reserve’s campaign to tamp down prices — marked by aggressive rate hikes — boosted net interest income for the country’s largest lenders.