The gulf between the winners and losers of the financial crisis was brought into sharp relief today after second quarter results from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup failed to match those reported by Wall Street rivals Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Profits from Bank of America Merrill Lynch's global markets business, which incorporates the sales and trading business and also takes a share of investment banking revenues, were down 44% on the first quarter at $1.38bn (€977m).*