In April, total global debt underwriting fell by more than a quarter year-over-year, while total U.S. debt underwriting dropped by nearly a half, according to Whitney.
The recent sizable underwriting of a 10-year IBM debenture with a 7.625% coupon is a leading indicator of the prospective spread contraction coming between high-grade corporates and 10-year Treasuries.
There is little time to act on deals packaged in 2005, the first year of really poor underwriting.
ECONOMIST: Banks are under assault from buyers of mortgage securities
But stock underwriting was up 36% from last year at this time.
Including this year, it has had an underwriting loss in four of the last five years.
For one thing, as of the end of third quarter 2008, global debt underwriting activity was down 46% from a year ago.
That number will likely get a big bump at the end of the year, when the sponsorships currently underwriting another 100, 000 digital subscriptions run out.
Despite shedding its insurance underwriting and asset management units in the last year or so, Citigroup continues to operate in a stunning variety of businesses, from subprime mortgage lending and branch banking to investment banking, private equity and securities servicing.
Some Chinese banks have switched to focus more on underwriting bonds, a business that has been booming since last year.
In addition, a large increase in early defaults on recently originated subprime variable-rate mortgages casts serious doubt on the adequacy of the underwriting standards for these products, especially those originated over the past year or so.
But last year Goldman ranked 10th in fees from advising Chinese companies on mergers and underwriting their stock and debt offerings, according to Dealogic.
Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ), which epitomized the diversification trend by combining insurance underwriting, securities, retail brokerage, consumer banking and asset management under one red umbrella in 1998 moved earlier this year to shed its life and annuity business.
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