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.

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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.

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.

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With just under half of Bank of America’s staff reporting to her, Cathy Bessant is one of the most powerful people in banking. She sees technology now developing faster than banks’ ability to implement it – or work out what to do with it – and believes cyber security to be the most important challenge of all.

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.

CEO lays out lessons from crisis; risk management set for test.

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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.

Lines are being blurred as advisers get better at financing, and firms that used to lead through balance sheet up their game in advisory.

Years of cutting costs, simplifying structures, settling litigation and plugging holes in its coverage have brought one bank to the position where it is now firing on all cylinders across pretty much all of its US business portfolio. ‘Responsible growth’ is the guiding mantra for Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan, and his success in putting those words into practice is why his firm is Euromoney’s best bank in the US. Moynihan might not be the flashiest of bank chiefs, but he knows his bank and he knows what clients in its home market want from it. His focus on building up the firm’s core middle-market franchise has borne fruit – not just in increased business loans but also on coverage more broadly. He drove the creation of deeper regional structures within the US, led by ‘market presidents’ who take personal responsibility for coordinating the bank’s activities across the country.

Understanding the client’s business and needs is essential for banks in transaction services. But Western Europe’s best bank for transaction services, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, demonstrates a profound knowledge of the changing role of the corporate treasurer.

Euromoney names HSBC as the World’s Best Bank and Morgan Stanley as the World’s Best Investment Bank; UniCredit’s chief executive Jean Pierre Mustier wins Banker of the Year award.

A seventh year of record earnings in the fiscal period 2016 – and a first half of 2017 that promises another blockbuster year – saw TD Bank prove yet again that it is the franchise to beat in Canada. The firm’s unrivalled breadth and depth secure it Euromoney’s best bank in Canada award for another year.

To be a top bank in the financing arena in the last 12 months, you need to have demonstrated flexibility. The ability to move quickly from one market or currency to another, or to switch between different parts of the capital structure, requires product strength and the kind of internal coordination that many banks preach but few practise. One that has consistently made a virtue of such flexibility is Bank of America Merrill Lynch, our pick for North America’s best bank for financing.

It is not often that banks are described as ‘phenomenal’, but that is what some of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s small and medium-sized enterprise clients call it, making it a fitting repeat winner of Euromoney’s award for North America’s best bank for SMEs. Marty Arenson, president of Global Sourcing Connection, a promotional products supplier, switched to the bank in 2008 after previous experiences he says he found horrific in comparison.

Integrating CSR in every business and pioneering new structures in affordable housing and green finance, Bank of America shows that good corporate citizenship is also good business.