This is the slow death of investment banking in 4 charts

Investment banks are under pressure.

Regulation, sluggish economic activity, and political uncertainty have all combined to depress revenues.

Tougher capital and conduct rules, in the wake of the financial crisis and market manipulation scandals, have made it more difficult to make money from trading debt, currencies and commodities.

This used to be a staple of investment banks' revenue.

Meanwhile, political uncertainty, in the form of events such as the US election and the UK's vote to leave the European Union, have made companies wary about big spending projects. This, in turn, has led to less capital markets activity because there are fewer corporate projects to fund.

The big firms have been scrambling to find a new business model that more than covers the cost of their capital. Credit Suisse is a good case in point.

The bank's CEO, Tidjane Thiam, has tried to steer away from trading towards providing more services for high-net worth individuals. In May, the bank cut around 100 jobs in its London-based global markets division.

A report from Coalition, which analyses banks' revenue data, shows just how dire the situation is.

Revenue started falling five years ago, and hasn't stopped yet. Investment banking income for the first half of 2016 is lower than that of 2008 - the year that saw the fall of Lehman Brothers and the peak of the financial crisis.

Here's Coalition (emphasis ours):

"Despite a strong 2Q16 performance in FICC, 1H16 Investment Banking revenues were still weaker than 1H08, driven by weakness in IBD and Equities throughout 1H16, and a very weak 1Q16 in FICC.

With revenues under pressure, banks are trying to protect their bottom line with renewed cost saving initiatives, including further headcount cuts and optimisation of their pyramid structure."

And here are the charts: