If you were wondering what the best banks to work for when it comes to Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities (FICC) or Equities sales and trading are, one criterion is the bank's global performance as measured against its competitors. Fortunately, UBS's banking analysts have issued a report charting the evolution of revenues for banks’ sales and trading businesses from 2009 to the first quarter of 2012.

Q1 is by far the most important three months of the year for sales and trading revenues, making it a barometer of a business’s health.

UBS’s figures, given in the tables below, confirm that Goldman has been the consistent loser of market share in FICC since 2009. By comparison, J.P. Morgan has consistently gained. BNP and SocGen’s investments in fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC businesses) appear to have paid off. Citi has never regained its leading FICC share from Q12009.

In equities, J.P. Morgan again takes the top spot, while BarCap and Deutsche appear to have taken share from UBS. Citi has lost significantly, but partially reversed the downward trend in the past quarter.

Overall, market shares look surprisingly stable over the past three years. What’s more notable is what’s happened to absolute revenues numbers: total FICC revenues as measured by UBS were down 30 percent in Q12012 vs. Q12009; equities sales and trading revenues were up 20 percent over the same period, but fell 15 percent between Q12010 and the first quarter of this year.

FICC market shares (%), by stated revenues:

Equities market shares (%), by stated revenues: