Coalition, an analytics and business intelligence provider for the global financial services sector, ultimately controlled by S&P Global, has published high-level commentary interpreting its investment banking index for the first quarter of 2017.The Coalition IB Index tracks the performance of the 12 largest investment banks globally.The banks are: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS and, since 2103, Société Générale (in place of RBS).Among the observations made in the latest report are that 1Q17 brought a strong start to the year, driven by improvement in the fixed income, currencies and commodities businesses and the investment banking divisions - revenues that offset a weaker performance in equities.Despite this, the revenues for the 12 banks that comprise the Coalition Index were still below 1Q12 to 1Q15 levels, and still scrambling to get there."The equities underperformance was driven by poor results in cash equities and lower revenues in prime services, while equities derivatives recovered from the trading underperformances of 1Q16. Within IBD, ECM recovered from a very low base and DCM improved due to higher leveraged finance revenues," Coalition said.Credit revenues improved significantly, on the back of "strong client activity, primary issuance and recovery from trading underperformance."This improvement was seen across most products, with strong performance in distressed, loan trading and structured products. "The securitisation rebound reflected a recovery from the trading underperformance in 1Q16, combined with tightening spreads. Revenues improved across all products with strong results in agency and non-agency RMBS and strong client demand for financing solutions," Coalition reported."Traditional" investment banking divisions' revenues reflected a strong increase in underwriting activity from a low 1Q16 base. ECM improved substantially with strong IPO volumes, while DCM gains reflected increased leveraged finance activity. M&A revenues remained stable as improvement in the Americas was offset by significant decline in EMEA and APAC. Basic materials and energy were the best performing sectors."Recovery from a poor 1Q16 in ECM, with robust revenue growth across all regions, was largely driven by significant increases in IPOs and follow-on offerings. Financials and technology [sectors] both saw prominent increases in activity," Coalition noted."The large increase in revenues [from debt capital markets] resulted from strength in leveraged finance on the back of refinancing activity. Energy and media were the top performing sectors."