Return on equity, a measure of profitability, fell to 9.7 percent in the second quarter from 17.8 percent in the period a year earlier.
Lehman's return on common stockholders' equity, a measure of profitability, fell about 16percentto8.6percentcent for the quarter.
Goldman's return on equity, a crucial measure of profitability, fell to 3.7 percent annualized for the nine months, down from 10.3 percent in the year ago period.
And its 2011 return on equity — a crucial measure of profitability — fell to 5.9 percent, roughly where it was 2008, when the financial crisis was in full swing.
The task of returning Zurich to profitability falls to an American, James Schiro, a former boss of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.Underrated?Japan responded angrily to threats by Moody's Investor Services to downgrade the country's credit rating again.
In a nod to just how difficult the environment has become, Goldman's return on equity, a measure of profitability, fell to 11.5 percent in 2010, down from 22.5 percent in the previous year and 32.8 percent in 2006.
Goldman said pay fell last year when its profitability fell — after his blowout salary in 2007, Mr. Blankfein earned $1.1 million for the year and bonuses across the firm fell by an average of 50percentt.
Amazon said that its net income was $108m, compared with $82m a year ago, but its operating income, a better measure of profitability, fell 19% to $146m from $181m at the same time last year.
Not surprisingly, in 2001 the sector's overall profitability fell by more than 48%, and the profitability of retail asset management, though still greater than that of the institutional side, declined sharply.
Analysts say that bank profitability might fall by a third from its precrisis levels, to where it was in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
