Press release Embargoed until 23:00 Thursday, July 6
Euromoney welcomed more than 600 senior bankers from around the world to the Tower of London on Thursday night to celebrate Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence 2017, the most prestigious awards in the global banking industry.
HSBC was named the world’s best bank, and the award was collected on stage by the bank’s chief executive Stuart Gulliver. Euromoney praised Gulliver and his management team for delivering arguably the most important transformation in the bank’s 150-year history.
"The transformation of HSBC under Stuart Gulliver has been undervalued,” Euromoney said. “HSBC today is a global bank that works, rather than one which exists. Tough decisions, around capital, businesses and people, have been made. Throughout that process, HSBC has continued to deliver strong profits and pay industry-leading dividends to shareholders. Now, HSBC is better positioned than ever before to benefit from its core value proposition of financing cross-border capital and trade flows. HSBC has a unique global business that can continue to deliver good returns to shareholders and help its clients meet their international ambitions."
HSBC was also named the world’s best investment bank in the emerging markets.
Morgan Stanley won the award for the world’s best investment bank for the second time in three years.
"Morgan Stanley continues to be one of the leading advisory and financing houses in the business, at the heart of many of the most complex and transformative deals, and its global equities franchise is a clear world leader,” Euromoney said. “Hard decisions have been made to ensure Morgan Stanley's fixed income division is fit for purpose. Morgan Stanley is working together as a business better than ever before, there is a spring in its step, its people have their swagger back – and clients as well as competitors have noticed." The award was collected on stage by Colm Kelleher, Morgan Stanley’s president.
Jean Pierre Mustier collected the award for banker of the year in recognition of the stunning turnaround he has achieved in just 12 months as CEO of UniCredit.
“Has any bank chief executive ever achieved so much in his first year in charge?” Euromoney said. “He is already a long way down the road of transforming an ailing Italian bank into a European bank with a positive future. His achievements include the successful completion of a €13 billion rights issue, and disposals of non-core and non-performing assets and businesses. Perhaps most importantly of all, UniCredit is the story of a management team, led by a pragmatic, determined and grounded chief executive, who has restored a sense of pride and purpose to a once-troubled institution.”
Citi won four global awards, for its markets and transaction services business, for best digital bank and for the world’s best bank for financial inclusion. For the latter award, Euromoney said: “Solving the challenge of the world’s unbanked will take investment, innovation and an ability to bring together key players in payments, fintech and microfinance. Right now, no bank is more committed to that combination than Citi."
One of the strongest themes to come out of Euromoney’s awards process this year is the extent to which banks have broken out of their traditional comfort zones into parts of the business that even a few years ago would have appeared far from their natural turf. That is particularly evident in the choice of winners for the global financing and advisory awards.
Goldman Sachs was named world’s best bank for financing, for building market-leading, advice-driven financing solutions for its clients.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch was named the world’s best bank for advisory, for which Euromoney said the firm “keeps winning prized advisory mandates in many of the most complex cross-border transactions that continue to transform industries. BAML leads with good people and good advice. Advisory is now at the core of its whole corporate and investment banking strategy.” Bank of America was also named the world’s best bank for corporate social responsibility.
In other global awards, Julius Baer was named the world’s best bank for wealth management, with the award collected by the bank’s CEO Boris Collardi; KBC’s chief executive Johan Thijs collected the world’s best bank transformation award; and Lloyds Banking Group CEO António Horta-Osório was on hand to collect awards for Western Europe’s best bank, as well as the world’s best bank for diversity and inclusion.
Hisham Ezz Al Arab, chairman of Egypt’s Commercial International Bank, picked up the trophy for the world’s best emerging market bank – the first bank from the Middle East to win this award. BNP Paribas, Santander and Lazard won the world’s best bank awards for corporates, SMEs and public-sector clients respectively. Evercore was named the world’s best independent investment bank.
The July issue of Euromoney, available at euromoney.com, contains citations for all of the 2017 Awards for Excellence, as well as in-depth features on HSBC and Morgan Stanley. A detailed interview with Jean Pierre Mustier will be published in the August edition.
ABOUT EUROMONEY AND THE AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE
For almost 50 years, Euromoney has been the leading publication for covering the growth of international finance. Over the last 12 months, its coverage has included interviews with close to 100 bank CEOs, ministers of finance and central bank governors around the world.
Euromoney's Awards for Excellence are the awards that matter to the banks and bankers who matter. They were established in 1992 and were the first of their kind in the global banking industry. This year, Euromoney received almost 1,500 submissions from banks in an awards programme that covers 20 global awards, more than 50 regional awards, and best bank awards in close to 100 countries.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To see photos from Thursday’s event, visit euromoney.com/awards. The awards articles are only available to subscribers. To ensure you have an up-to-date subscription, contact our hotline at hotline@euromoneyplc.com or +44 207 779 8999.