Awards for Excellence 2014: Best global transaction services house

Ever since Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch in 2009, there has been a privately held fear among competitors that the merged bank would be a global force to be reckoned with if its divergent cultures were somehow melded into one. Five years on and that situation is materializing. 

In global transaction banking, as elsewhere, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is reaping the benefits of a more unified culture that has senior Merrill investment bankers working closely and collaboratively with their corporate and transaction banking brethren to win banking business. Such is the relationship between them, business is flowing the other way too. It hasn’t been easy. There has been blood. But it does appear to be working.  

“It is literally every single person trying to help to win a deal,” says Paul Simpson, head of global transaction services at BAML in New York.