APAC investment bank revenues reached their lowest levels in five years in FY 2017, mainly driven by declines in Japan and "emerging Asia" fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) - although this was partially offset by a rebound in equities following a weak 2016, according to global analytics company CRISIL. The investment bank performances in the major APAC markets were uneven.•    Australasia was the best performing region across APAC in 2017, but the region still saw a decline in overall investment bank revenues, driven by weak revenues across IBD (mergers and acquisitions, equity capital and debt capital), while FICC and equities remained stable. •    Japan underperformed in the APAC region driven by lower markets revenues, especially in FICC and rates trading. In contrast, it saw revenue improvements in prime brokerage and IBD. •    Emerging Asia's decline in investment bank revenues reflected significantly lower revenues in FICC and, to a lesser degree, ECM and mergers and acquisitions activity. Against this, equities outperformed, driven by improved performance in cash equities and equity derivatives.CRISIL looked at specific areas of investment banking revenue pools in Australasia and found fixed income, currencies and commodities continued to be dominated by the performance of macro products, which remained stable in 2017. Macro includes rates, and is the largest FICC product. CRISIL found that foreign exchange performed in-line with global businesses, with declining margins and continued digitalisation. Commodities revenues have declined substantially in recent years, with activity mainly generated from inventory financing for local corporate clients.The spread market (mainly comprised of credit, securitisation and other structured products) is predominantly driven by large, one-off financing deals. CRISIL said that, since its peak in 2015, the distressed credit market has suffered a continued cyclical decline. However, equities performance has been relatively stable for the last three years, with prime services outperforming traditional equities businesses (cash and derivatives). Prime Services revenues increased due to continued reallocation of international client activity from traditional equities to synthetic products, CRISIL said.Reduced activity in energy and utilities, along with lower levels of outbound deals, saw M&A revenues decline moderately over the year. Equity capital market revenues dropped due to an absence of large IPO transactions, with the real estate and consumer sectors seeing the largest fall.  A significant reduction in refinancing activity saw debt capital market revenues drop, with the energy, utilities and industrial sectors the most affected.