FleetBoston Financial Corp. said revenues from capital markets activities, already under pressure from declining markets, will not match 2000's levels this year.
In its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, made Wednesday, the company said revenues from capital markets - driven by gains in equity investments, market making, and securities underwriting - grew 50% last year, to $3.2 billion. But given current market conditions, revenues from the group this year "are not expected to reach those experienced in 2000," it said in the filing.
Most other companies with large capital markets groups are reporting sluggish underwriting and deal volume because of the market's swoon, though many say they expect a recovery in the business in the second half.
Reiterating earlier statements, Fleet said it expects nonperforming assets to keep rising this year as corporate clients feel the pinch of the economic slowdown. The anticipated increase in nonperforming loans should come mainly from domestic commercial and industrial credits, it said.
In December the company sold $940 million of troubled loans and classified $225 million worth of those loans as nonperforming.
