Best bank:
Banco de Crédito del Perú
Best debt house:
Citigroup/Salomon Smith Barney
Banco de Crédito del Perú, the flagship bank of Credicorp, undoubtedly has the strongest franchise in the country. Its one million customers have given it more than $6 billion in assets, $493 million of equity, 24% of total loans, and 30% of total deposits. It is also rated number one in customer service. But its 4% return on equity, its 11.9% past-due-loan ratio, and its reliance on the sluggish Peruvian economy hardly make the company a poster child for Andean banking. All the same, BCP did pick up a borrower's award in the June issue of Euromoney for an innovative structure that securitized Peruvians' remittances from abroad into a seven-year bond.
Peru hasn't issued any global bonds yet, but there is an active domestic bond market. And there Citigroup has the lead. It lead-managed the issue of seven-year bonds from Edegel, Peru's largest generation company, and also has an 85% market share of Peru's developing securitization market.