Best bank
Santander Central Hispano
Best debt house
JPMorgan
Best M&A house
JPMorgan
Best equities house
UBS
Best in risk management and treasury
JPMorgan
Best in transaction services
Citigroup
Best in cash management
Citigroup
The bond-market bubble of the past few months notwithstanding, the past year has been brutal for Latin America. Latin economies were generally in bad shape a year ago, which at the least meant many banks thought things could only get better. Unfortunately, they didn't. The corporate and financial sectors across most of the region found themselves in self-preservation mode, waiting for the recovery that always seems just around the corner.
Sluggish economic growth in the region has forced Latin American banks to readjust strategies and priorities, now that the hopes of the 1990s have been comprehensively dashed. Latin America is not going to follow the route of the Iberian peninsula, travelling from dictatorship through democracy to become a region of truly developed nations. There's no European convergence play here, and countries seem just as likely to take large steps backwards (Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela) as they are to move towards prosperity and stability (Chile, Mexico).
Treating Latin America as a region to be conquered, then, is a strategy of the past.