The news for banks, broker-dealers, and other largefinancial-services firms is not good for 2016.

|

In fact for some firms, the first quarter of 2016 proved to bethe worst since the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

|

A number of issues are causing trouble for the group, includingeconomic growth in China, low oil prices and weak interest rates,not to mention continued market volatility. And many banks arestruggling to improve their fixed-income results, as well asproprietary trading.

|

Read: Is the SEC's treatment of CPAs vs. brokersconfusing investors?

|

Of the 11 broker-dealers surveyed by ThinkAdvisor, 10 hadnegative earnings growth in the first three months of 2016 vs. thesame period of 2015.

|

The top four firms on this list posted huge earnings gains yearover year, while profits shrank for the bottom…

|

Analysts say they worry about Q2'16 and the rest of the year,since falling revenue can make it tough for companies to both cutcosts and produce higher earnings, of course. Plus, the poorshowing of the capital markets weakness is poised to continue, atleast in the short term, they caution.

|

Read: Witness says brokers try to pass themselvesoff as fiduciaries

|

As for the latest trading results, the performance says a lot:The Financial Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) is down about 2.5 percent forthe year through May 12 vs. a nearly 1.3 percent increase for theS&P 500.

|

After a bad first quarter, “We don't think that necessarily getsrecovered in the back half of the year,” said Jerry Braakman, chiefinvestment officer of First American Trust, which owns shares ofCitigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Goldman, in an interview withReuters last month. “There are a lot of challenges ahead.”

|

Read on for the latest rankings of how the broker-dealersperformed in the first quarter.

|

WORST BROKER-DEALER

|

|

11^th Place

|

UBS (UBS)

|

Group AG's first-quarter profits fell 64% to707 million Swiss francs, or about $741 million, missing missedanalysts' estimates on weak results in investment banking andtrading.

|

Meanwhile, revenue dropped 23% to 6.8 billion francs in thefirst quarter.

|

“This cocktail of macro issues, geopolitical issues is nowcoming on,” CEO Sergio Ermotti said in an interview on BloombergTelevision.

|

The global wealth-management unit's pretax profit fell 41% fromlast year to 557 million Swiss francs on low transaction volumes,as revenue weakened 16% to 1.885 billion Swiss francs. But theWealth Management Americas unit reported revenue that outpacedthese results – at 1.889 billion Swiss francs, up 5% from a yearago. Pre-tax profits for the Americas unit, however, were 211 Swissfrancs (about $212 million), representing a year-over-year declineof 17%.

|

Assets per advisor in the Americas stands at $147 million, andthe level of average fees & commissions per rep is now$1,064,000. Advisor headcount in the Americas totals 7,145.

|

|

|

10^th Place

|

GOLDMAN SACHS (GS)

|

Goldman Sachs' net income tumbled 60% to $1.14billion, or $2.68 per share, on revenue of $6.34 billion in thefirst quarter of 2016.

|

“The operating environment this quarter presented a broad rangeof challenges, resulting in headwinds across virtually every one ofour businesses,” said CEO Lloyd Blankfein in a statement.

|

Trading revenue came in at $3.44 billion, down 37% from thesame quarter a year ago, while fixed income, currency, andcommodities revenues weakened 47%. Meanwhile, investment-bankingrevenue worsened by 23% to $1.46 billion.

|

In addition, investing and lending revenues came in at $87million, down from $1.67 billion from the year-ago quarter.

|

|

|

9^th Place

|

MORGAN STANLEY (MS)

|

Morgan Stanley explained that it net income fell53% in the first quarter to $1.1 billion, or $0.55 pershare, vs. $2.4 billion, or $1.18 per share, last year. Revenuedeclined 21% year over year to $7.79 billion.

|

The company adds that last year's Q1 results included a taxbenefit of $564 million or $0.29 per share. (Earnings beat analystsestimates, though sales fell short.)

|

“Obviously, 2016 got off to a difficult start,” said Chairman& CEO James Gorman on a call with investors, adding that“retail activity was extremely subdued.”

|

Despite the “more challenging revenue environment,” Gormanexplained, “all was not lost. Wealth Management generated a pretaxmargin greater than 21% …, [and] we made real progress in ourexpense discipline …”

|

Morgan Stanley's Institutional Securities business, its largest,had a 66% drop in net profits to $591 million vs. last year, asrevenue slumped 32% to about $3.7 billion. In investmentbanking, the volume of IPOs was down 82% quarter over quarter, CFOJonathan Pruzan said during a conference call with equityanalysts.

|

Wealth Management's net income declined 8% from last year to$493 million. Sales weakened about 4% from the year-ago quarter to$3.67 billion.

|

In addition, the average yearly fees and commissions for itsfinancial advisors, which number 15,888, declined by 4% from lastyear to $923,000. Total assets for the unit dropped slightly, 2%,to about $2 trillion.

|

|

|

8^th Place

|

STIFEL FINANCIAL (SF)

|

Stifel Financial had first-quarter 2016 net income of $27.1million, or $0.36 per diluted common share, down37% from a year ago. Net sales, though, grew 11% year overyear to $620.0 million.

|

Total net revenue in the global wealth management segment was$380 million, up 9% sequentially and 15% year over year. GWM'sbrokerage revenue grew 4% sequentially and 10% from last year to$173 million.

|

The group includes 2,849 financial advisors – 688 of whom areindependent contractors; this is down from 2,819 in the priorquarter but up from 2,097 a year ago.

|

|

|

7^th Place

|

CITIGROUP (C)

|

Citigroup's net income weakened 27% in thefirst quarter to $3.5 billion compared to the same period a yearearlier. Total revenue fell 11% to $17.6 billion on decreasedglobal consumer banking, institutional clients and core Citicorpoperations.

|

Earnings per share of $1.10, though, did beat analysts'expectations.

|

“While our market-sensitive products clearly suffered from weakinvestor sentiment during the quarter, we continued to makeprogress in several key areas,” Citi CEO Michael Corbat saidin statement.

|

“We grew loans and deposits in our core businesses, reduced ourexpenses while absorbing a significant repositioning charge,utilized additional deferred tax assets, and generated capital inexcess of what we returned to our shareholders.”

|

Citigroup's allowance for loan losses dipped 2% to $12.7billion, compared to a year earlier. The company has $619 billionin loans on its books, unchanged from the first quarter of 2015.Deposits rose 4% to $935 billion.

|

|

|

6th Place

|

BANK OF AMERICA (BAC)

|

Bank of America reported that its first quarter netincome dropped 13% from a year ago on weaker tradingrevenue and interest income. Like other banks, including WellsFargo, it put aside more energy-related loan loss reserves.

|

BofA's net income was $2.7 billion in Q1'16 vs. $3.1 billion inQ1'15. Earnings per share were $0. 21, just beating equityanalysts' average estimate.

|

Total revenue, including net interest income and non-interestincome, was $19.7 billion – a drop of 7% from last year and belowanalysts' estimate of $20.3 billion for the quarter.

|

The wealth and investment management unit's revenue droppedabout 2% to $4.4 billion on weaker non-interest income. The unit'snet income, though, rose 13% year over year to $740 million due to“solid expense management” its pre-tax margin for the period was26% vs. 23% in Q1'15.

|

The number of advisors with Merrill Lynch stands at 14, 413, upslightly from the prior year's headcount of 14,185 but down fromthe earlier quarter's 14,499.

|

Advisors produced an average level of yearly fees andcommissions of $983,000 as of Q1'16 vs. $1.04 billion in theyear-ago period and $995,000 in the prior quarter.

|

Total client balances were $2.46 trillion vs. $2.51 trillion ayear ago. Moreover, client flows went into negative territory at-$600 million in Q1'16 vs. positive flows of $14.7 billion in theyear-ago period and $6.76 billion in the prior quarter.

|

|

|

5th Place

|

AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL (AMP)

|

Ameriprise Financial said its net income declined7.4% year over year to $364 million in Q1'16, though itsEPS figure improved slightly to $2.09.

|

The earnings results, though, missed estimates, and salesweakened to about $2.8 billion from roughly $3.1 million in Q1'15 —with wealth management sales off 2% from last year at $1.2billion.

|

The financial-services company said “client activity slowedgiven the markets.” Operating earnings fell to $378 million,or $2.17 a share, from $412 million, or $2.18 a share.

|

Total assets under management and administration were $773billion, and the company had 9,766 total advisers.

|

“The strength of the Ameriprise brand and our reputation is animportant differentiator,” said Jim Cracchiolo, chairman and CEO,on a call with equity analysts. “We are back on the air with oursuccessful Be Brilliant advertising … As a result, Ameriprise brandawareness hit an all-time high in the quarter.”

|

|

|

4th Place

|

JPMORGAN CHASE (JPM)

|

JPMorgan Chase reported profits that beat Wall Street estimatesbut were down 6.7% to $5.52 billion, or $1.35 ashare, from $5.91 billion, or $1.45, a year earlier.

|

The firm trimmed bankers' pay over the past three months.Trading revenue weakened by not as much as many equity analysts hadanticipated.

|

On an adjusted basis, per-share earnings were $1.41, beating the$1.25 average estimate of 29 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

|

“While challenging markets impacted the industry, we maintainedour leadership positions and market share,” said CEO Jamie Dimon,in the statement. “Even in a challenging environment, clientscontinue to turn to us in the global markets.”

|

The global wealth management group had revenues of $1.5 billionin the period, roughly unchanged from a year ago, and a pre-taxmargin of 26%. Part of the asset management unit, the global wealthgroup has 2,750 financial advisors.

|

|

|

3rd Place

|

WELLS FARGO (WFC)

|

Wells Fargo said its first-quarter profits dropped6% from a year ago, weakening to about $5.5 billion vs.$5.8 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were $0.99, which beatanalysts' estimates of $0.97 cents, but fell short of last year'sEPS of $1.04.

|

Revenue for the quarter grew 4% $22.2 billion, topping estimatesof $21.6 billion.

|

In the first quarter, Wells Fargo charged off $204 million inenergy loans, a jump of roughly 75% what it charged off in thefourth quarter. The bank also added $200 million to funds for loansthat could be hurt due to weakness in the energy and its impact onthe bank's oil and gas portfolio.

|

Wells Fargo's wealth and investment management unit had a 3%year-over-year decline in revenue to about $3.9 billion. Net incomealso dropped 3% year over year and 14% from the prior period,weakening to $512 million on lower brokerage transaction revenueand asset-based fees. The unit's total assets were $1.6 trillion,down 2% from last year.

|

Client assets for the retail brokerage – which includes 15,064financial advisors – also fell 2% to $1.4 trillion. Advisory assetsof $428 billion were down 1%.

|

|

|

2nd Place

|

LPL FINANCIAL (LPLA)

|

LPL Financial said its net income fell 1% froma year ago in the quarter to $50.4 million, as revenue declined 9%to $1.005 billion.

|

“We are pleased that our diverse gross profit streams and tightexpense management delivered strong financial results despite theextremely volatile environment in the first quarter,” said Chairmanand CEO Mark Casady, in a statement.

|

The DOL fiduciary rule is focused on brokerage retirement assetsand accounts, which make up 30% of the firm's assets, Casadysaid.

|

During a conference call with equity analysts, Casady said thatwhile the best and first use of its capital “is in organic growthof the platform … [which can create] recruiting opportunities …,the second place would be M&A …”

|

In the first quarter, commissions brought in by LPL-affiliatedreps dropped 17% year over year to $436.7 million, while advisoryrevenue declined 7% to $319.4 million. Combined, total gross dealerconcessions – or advisor production – was $756.2 million, a drop of13% from last year and 4% from last quarter.

|

Asset-based sales, though, grew 13% to $136.3 million, whiletransaction and fee revenues improved 1% to $102.7 million.

|

The number of advisors improved by 39 from last quarter but fellby five from last year to 14,093. The amount of custom-clearingsubscribers (or reps affiliated win insurance firms working withLPL) stands at 4,177, down 3% from a year ago.

|

|

BEST BROKER DEALER

|

|

1st Place

|

RAYMOND JAMES (RJF)

|

Raymond James' profits rose 11%, the only oneof the 11 to do so, in the first quarter to $125.8 million, or$0.87 per share, vs. $113.5 million, or $0.77 per share, a yearearlier.

|

The company improved revenues 2% from last year to $1.31billion. Both earnings and sales results in the quarter beatanalysts' estimates. Excluding $6 million of expenses associatedwith its acquisition of the US Private Client Services unit ofDeutsche Bank Wealth Management, adjusted net income for thequarter was $129.7 million, or $0.90 per share.

|

“Considering the extremely challenging market environment, weare pleased with the solid results we generated in the first halfof the fiscal year, which reinforce the value of our diversifiedbusiness model and long-term focus on serving our clients,” saidCEO Paul Reilly, in a statement.

|

“The records we achieved for client assets under administration,the number of Private Client Group financial advisors and net loansat Raymond James Bank bode well for results in the second half ofthe fiscal year,” Reilly added.

|

The company's employee and affiliated advisors brought in netrevenue of $880.3 million, up 1% from a year ago and from the priorquarter. Pre-tax income grew 10% to $83.2 million vs. the year-agoperiod and 20% from the earlier period.

|

Assets under administration expanded 3% from the year-ago andprior quarter to $485.6 billion, while the number of reps grew to6,765 – an increase of 78 from December 2015 and 381 from March2015.

|

“Our continued success recruiting and retaining financialadvisors has resulted in new records for client assets underadministration and the number of Private Client Group financialadvisors,” explained Reilly.

|

“This momentum should continue given the strong recruitingpipeline and the planned acquisition of the US Private ClientServices unit of Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, as over 90% ofthose advisors have committed to join us to form the new Alex.Brown division of Raymond James upon closing.”