Such commissions could be construed, in effect, as part of the underwriting fees earned by the bank.
But most share issuers are big, sophisticated operators which rarely complain about the size of underwriting fees.
More importantly, BABs have saved money for taxpayers in virtually every state, even taking into account underwriting fees.
Warburg was always queasy about profits made from punting the firm's own capital, preferring income from advisory and underwriting fees.
Hungry for underwriting fees, investment banks rushed many early-stage companies to the bond market even though they faced an overcrowded competitive environment.
Investment banks benefited from these developments by pocketing handsome underwriting fees as well as by capitalizing on uptick conditions, to lock in trading gains.
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Then came the crash, and investors looked back with anger on all the underwriting fees that had been pocketed by the firms with the bullish analysts.
The published numbers apply only to the banks' Chinese subsidiaries, and don't include items such as gains on investments in Chinese lenders or underwriting fees for overseas offerings by Chinese companies.
Douglas Ferrans, author of a report on equity underwriting for the Institutional Investors Council, says the bundling of charges for corporate-broking services with underwriting fees raises the suspicion that shareholders are paying over the odds.
There are economic reasons why BABs underwriting fees may have started out high and then come down: underwriters took on risk with a new product and had to bear start-up costs and devote resources to educate investors for their initial offerings.
These take many forms: underwriting and registration fees, credit-rating costs, taxes and the time it takes to bring a bond to the market.
Fees for underwriting equities, for instance, have been between 5% and 7% of the issue's size for years.
Fears of renewed recession in the rich world and anxiety about the euro zone have dampened stockmarkets and made the lucrative fees from underwriting share and debt issues, or advising on big mergers, seem a distant prospect.
This suggests that they pay fixed fees for share underwriting because, in this market, they place certainty and speed of negotiation above cost.
They are then forced to cover the difference with the fees they make for underwriting and syndicating the debt packages.
The charts display the fact that almost all of Nomura's equity underwriting business and merger and acquisition adviser fees come from clients in Japan.
Britain's Office of Fair Trading announced an inquiry into the equity underwriting services of investment banks, including the fees they charge.
But last year Goldman ranked 10th in fees from advising Chinese companies on mergers and underwriting their stock and debt offerings, according to Dealogic.
Analyst reports from underwriting banks are often viewed by investors with a skeptical eye, because banks collect fees for taking a company public.
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