Imagine, in JPMorgan Chase's case, the frustration at being the leading credit derivatives house, high-yield-bond underwriter and fixed-income research firm (among other things) and then losing on some bets on interest rates.

FORBES: Beware That Commercial Bank

Independent market-data providers, including Thomson and Greenwich Associates, have consistently ranked Deutsche Bank as the number one bond underwriter in the euro zone, as a leader in international debt and equity markets, and as one of the world's largest foreign-exchange and derivatives houses.

ECONOMIST: Russia's rotten statelets

The profit margin for an underwriter arranging a municipal bond issue is razor-thin, about a quarter of a percent, according to Thomson Financial.

FORBES: Party's Over