Proprietary trading by investment banks has more than halved since March last year, according to analysis by Credit Suisse of data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Primary dealers at banks borrowed about $600bn (€453bn) in the fixed-income markets in March last year to finance their trading activity, according to data from the reserve bank. One year later, this had slumped by 58% to $254bn, a level previously seen in February 2007.