Though it remains committed to growing its equities trading business, Citi has struggled to dethrone those at the very top. But on the heels of recent gains in the league tables, the US bank’s equities co-head Murray Roos points to its deep balance sheet as a competitive advantage that can propel it into the stratosphere.

Citi is strongest in fixed income, currencies and commodities markets, a reputation that goes back to its acquisition of Salomon Brothers, and catching up with the equities revenues generated by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan — never mind the dominant duo of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs — is still some way off. In the third quarter of this year, Morgan Stanley topped league tables with just shy of $1.9bn, with Goldman in second place at $1.7bn. Citi failed to tick past the $1bn threshold.