Day 2 of our look at the performance of the 12 big CIBs over the past year, this time focusing on the investment banking business lines

With HSBC having reported on Monday, the last of the 2Q18 results are in for the 12 main global corporate and investment banks; now for part 1 of our number-crunch

When Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Asia president, Matthew Koder, gets going on corporate responsibility, your best chance of getting out of the room within an hour and a half is an earthquake. Koder chose to pitch personally in only one category, this one, and in truth everything BAML put in for – investment banking, transaction services and country awards from the Philippines to Japan – is presented through the filter of corporate responsibility.

One perk of interviewing banks about sustainable finance has to be the building tours taking in recycled carpets and in-building power plants, but it is not often that you get treated to a rooftop tour of bee hives.

Equity capital markets moves at Citi and BAML say more about the two firms than they do about ECM.

Big and clever, that is what you needed to be to be a leader in the financing business in the last 12 months, and no one achieved that combination better in the region than Bank of America Merrill Lynch, North America’s best bank for financing.

It is hard to imagine another bank coming close to Bank of America Merrill Lynch for the sheer breadth of what it can offer to small and medium-sized enterprises. A lot of that is to do with a philosophy that looks beyond the size of the client to the value of nurturing a sound business and to be best-positioned to support it as it grows.

The rising economic fortunes of the largest countries lifted nearly all investment banking boats. Local investment banking franchises continued to notch up strong deal flow and fees, but last year was noticeable for the improvement in the fortunes of the international banks.

Argentina

Austria

Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s operations in western Europe over the last year have seen the bank develop its own structure to keep pace in a market that is both exciting and volatile, making it western Europe’s best bank for transaction services.

Under Thiago Fernandes, head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) for Latin America, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is changing the way corporate philanthropy operates in Brazil; this year it wins Euromoney’s award for Latin America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.

Technology is rapidly transforming the payments landscape for corporates and retail customers alike, and the systems that gain traction tend to be those that give consumers better visibility of their money – or make their lives easier in other ways.

Euromoney magazine has released the results of its 40th annual foreign exchange ranking, the most comprehensive quantitative and qualitative annual study available on the FX markets.

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Bank of America Merrill Lynch has taken bits of products it already offers to make a new solution that could make life easier – and cheaper – for treasurers.

Banks are working increasingly closely with large software and fintech companies to improve internal efficiency, but there is still progress to be made in understanding what both parties can gain.

While tax reform charges make a bad year worse for US banks, the timing of the law sets the scene for better results in 2018. But the fundamentals may not change: trading is bad, financing is good.

Banks are booking big charges in the fourth quarter, but the domestic names are sitting pretty for the future as US taxes fall.

The results of the Euromoney Trade Finance Survey 2018 show the emergence of two very different trends: the sustained presence of the global trade finance bank, and the rising influence of regional institutions.

Under Brian Moynihan, responsible growth is starting to look exciting

Although banks like talking about bringing digital services to trade finance, a surprisingly low proportion of the 7,000-plus participants in Euromoney’s annual trade finance survey are actually using the technology.

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The chief executives of US banks have spent so long complaining about regulations that they can scarcely believe their luck at the impending relaxation.

While economists debate the likely path to reduction in the European Central Bank’s (ECB) swollen €4.2 trillion balance sheet, debt capital markets investors continue to buy long-dated bonds from sovereign, supranational and agency issuers.

There is an important changing of the guard for the best bank for markets award, reflecting a rapid and big improvement. In previous years, Bank of America Merrill Lynch would have been at the periphery of a conversation on Asia-Pacific markets. Now it is front and centre. The most obvious thing BAML has going for it is diversity. Whereas the usual contenders in this category, Citi and HSBC, are heavy on forex and rates but are trying to bolster equities from a relatively low base (Morgan Stanley is the reverse), BAML is already diversified, with equities businesses accounting for 40% of global markets revenues in 2016 and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) 60%. That FICC figure is roughly equally split between emerging and developed markets. Global rates, credit and foreign exchange are all well represented.

A visit to the executive dining floor at Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Bryant Park headquarters in Manhattan is always a pleasure.