But several also noted the benefits of tightening spreads, which implies they made a bundle just from holding a lot of paper: mere inventory gains to some, just a huge bet with the bank's own money to others.
Decimalization of stock prices also helped to tighten spreads, as did the start of the International Securities Exchange, the first purely electronic options market.
As these lenders have cut back, terms have tightened: spreads on loans of between $100,000 and $1m rose by a percentage point in 2009, reaching their highest levels in over a decade, according to the Federal Reserve.American banks' stock of "commercial and industrial" loans, including loans to small firms, fell at an annual rate of 21% in the first quarter of 2010.
This additional money will increase liquidity, tighten spreads and lower costs for investors.
But over the next year, long-term rates are likely to trend somewhat higher, potentially tightening the spread.
Figures 2 and 6 show that as mean blood glucose decreases the lower 5% limit of measurements does not appreciably drop, indicating that control is not simply shifting blood glucose lower but is also tightening the spread and thus minimising the risk of hypoglycaemic events.
And this, he tells Spaniards who have already seen €90 billion ($116 billion) of belt-tightening spread over several years, is because he himself believes in it and not because heavyweights in Brussels or Frankfurt demand it.
One-time charges connected to how its debt is valued and other accounting-related issues reduced the results by nearly $5 billion, largely because of tightening credit spreads.
Given the extent to which yields have fallen, and the limited room for tightening in spreads, fixed income looks expensive and exposed to downside risk when rates eventually do begin to move higher.
While the Swiss bank is still suffering from tightening credit spreads and customer outflows, JPMorgan said steady improvements are expected from its fixed-income, currency and commodity units over the first half of this year, and at its equity trading unit later in 2010.
As the chart makes clear, rising long-term government yields and tightening credit spreads formed a near-perfect mirror image.
