CITIGROUP WAS THE best overall performer in the leading customer polls and surveys of financial services carried out by Euromoney in 2004. The US bank won 85 of the 197 categories in the five major surveys Euromoney carried out between January and November last year. Citi came top in the annual cash management and capital raising surveys, and was ranked third in the risk management and foreign exchange reviews.
Hard data support voters' perceptions. The bank's capital markets and banking division consistently places at the top of the global debt and equity underwriter rankings compiled by Dealogic.
According to issuance volumes estimated by Dealogic, a sister organization of Euromoney, Citi was bookrunner in 2004 for $208 billion of debt and equity. Recent regulatory investigations and the retirement of Sandy Weill as CEO have not made for pretty reading for Citi shareholders but gory newspaper headlines do not detract from the group's fundamental ability to turn these leading market positions into hefty quarterly profits ($5.31 billion for the third quarter of 2004, up 13% on the same period the previous year).
Deutsche, the next most successful firm in Euromoney's 2004 surveys, won 24 categories, including a clear victory in the risk management survey.