Last month, bank after bank reported a blowout quarter on their trading desks, helping stem the bleeding from consumer units amid the pandemic-driven economic slump.

Now, new figures show just how good the year so far has been. The top 10 investment banks trading desks earned over $77bn during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus crisis prompted huge market swings and massive spikes in fixed-income revenues, spurring the best performance for eight years.