Royal Bank of Scotland sees revenues jump

Royal Bank of Scotland enjoyed the biggest percentage increase in European debt capital market revenues of any investment bank last year, according to preliminary figures from Dealogic.

Revenues at the UK bank increased 52.9% to $315m (€266m) year-on-year in its best 12 months for debt and credit on record. Its market share rose from 3.8% to 5.5%.

However, RBS has some way to go before it challenges Europe's DCM banking heavyweights. Deutsche Bank earned $585m in European DCM revenues last year, ousting Credit Suisse First Boston as leader for the region. Deutsche's revenues rose 34%, while CSFB's fell by nearly 6%.

Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Citigroup and JP Morgan performed well with revenue growth of more than 30%.

Apart from CSFB, the only other banks to experience falling revenues were Morgan Stanley, down 16%, and ABN Amro, down 10%.

European revenues at investment banks rose 18% to $7.2bn and the region's share of the global market continued to grow. By volume, European DCM increased from 35% to 37% of the global market, while revenues climbed from 35% to 40%.

Banks found investment-grade companies particularly lucrative and revenues from that group increased 10% to $2.5bn. However, the high-yield market was more difficult where revenues dipped 12% to $621m, the first time high-yield turnover has fallen since 2000.

The declining role of Germany's Landesbanken in the bond markets meant that UK companies paid out Europe's highest revenues for the first time.