Bankers have long known that bond supply this year was never going to reach the giddy heights of 2003, so they focused on boosting fixed-income revenues from secondary market trading.

For the first six months, the banking sector reaped huge rewards from selling and trading fixed-income securities, which took over from primary market bond underwriting as the main profits driver in the continued absence of a pick-up in equities or merger and acquisitions business. Banks invested heavily in expanding their trading teams.