Societe Generale’s investment bank suffered a near 20% drop in revenues over the second quarter but this was still not enough to prevent the division reporting a record first half – highlighting again the extent to which poor trading volumes hit banks in the three months to June 30.

The French group's corporate and investment bank said today that it pulled in net revenues of €1.8bn during the last quarter, 18.1% down on the first three months of the year. However, net revenues for the first half totalled €4.1bn - topping the record for this period at Societe Generale set in 2007.