HSBC & Deutsche Bank cut equities people. Maybe that was a bad idea?

If you're an investment bank with a major equities trading operation and a leading equity capital markets business, 2026 has been a good year. Market intelligence firm Tricumen says equities sales and trading revenues rose 56% year-on-year in the first half. The market leaders are doing better than the rest. In the second quarter alone, Goldman Sachs' equities sales and trading revenues were up 72% year-on-year; its ECM revenues were up 130%.

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It helped that Goldman Sachs earned $100m in fees from the SpaceX IPO, as did Morgan Stanley. It helped too that the biggest US banks have invested heavily in their equities trading platforms, allowing them to compete with market making platforms like Citadel Securities when volatlity and volumes are high.

Some have pulled back from the equities race, though. Deutsche Bank withdrew from equities sales and trading in 2019, cutting hundreds of trading jobs in the process. HSBC made cuts to its London equities sales and trading and research business last year and then again in early 2026. 

In the words of one senior HSBC equities professional, this was "terrible timing," but maybe he would feel that way. HSBC doesn't break out its equities trading revenues these days, so its performance this year is unclear. However, across equities and fixed income trading its revenues rose by a mere 2% in the first half. HSBC declined to comment for this article. 

Deutsche Bank's equities sales and trading operations were more comprehensively disassembled globally seven years ago, but the German bank's involvement in equities is by no means over.  Deutsche Bank re-added a raft of equities sales and trading and research professionals in London when it acquired Numis in 2023, not all of whom survived. However, Deutsche also maintains a skeleton equities sales and trading business to help distribute stock from its equity capital markets mandates. 

For Deutsche Bank at least, this approach seems to be working well. In the first half of 2026, it ranked 9th for ECM in the all-important US market, up from 20th in the same period of 2025. Despite dismantling much of its equities sales and trading business, Deutsche even won a syndicate role on the SpaceX IPO. 

This is in line with Deutsche's strategy. Tim Swirling, who joined from Barclays as global head of equity capital markets in July 2025, said earlier this month that the bank's strategy is not to focus on sales and trading with hedge fund clients brought in by a prime brokerage business, but to distribute new issues, produce research and provide corporate access. It might have helped that Deutsche's remaining researchers declared SpaceX “the apex of civilisational ambition," while assigning it a share price target of $255 (versus Goldman's $205 buy rating). 

It probably helps, too, that Deutsche Bank has been hiring heavily in the US market. Speaking to MergerMarket earlier this month, Stephane Gruffat, its US based global head of ECM syndicate and Nick Williams, its head of US ECM - both of whom joined from Credit Suisse - said the bank has made eight new equities hires in the US this year with more in the pipeline. At last year's investor day, Deutsche Bank said it planned to add 60 equities professionals over three years.  

HSBC, by comparison, has entirely pulled out of equity capital markets activities in both the US and EMEA and so has been correspondingly absent from this year's lucrative US IPOs. The bank's May 2026 investor day focused only on Asia and made little mention of plans for equities or ECM specifically. HSBC ranked outside the top 10 for ECM in Asia in the first half of 2026.

Nonetheless, HSBC said its ECM, equity derivatives and prime finance revenues all rose in the first half of the year. While Deutsche focuses on regaining lost ground in the critical US market, HSBC seems happy with its purely APAC focus. 

Some insist that HSBC missing out as a result. HSBC's own May investor presentation highlighted the fact that 85% of HSBC's Asian investment banking revenues are "multi-jurisdictional." HSBC isn't participating in the delayed IPO of A.S. Watson Group which has a dual listing in London and Hong Kong. Insiders suggest this is because of the new lack of ECM bankers in London. "This was exactly in their wheelhouse," says one.

Some of those who've left, say HSBC is also missing a trick in prime finance. "For a bank with such a huge balance sheet, prime broking should have been a huge opportunity," says one former equities professional at the bank.

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