Citi

In investment banking, Citi continues to benefit from the combination of a leading global network and an on the ground presence in Africa that is much bigger than most other international firms.

Evidence of an ability to leverage networks across Africa and beyond has helped Citi win the title of Africa’s best bank for advisory this year. While the firm has a strong franchise in South Africa, the rest of the continent is now becoming more important as a growth market. This award is therefore largely thanks to the team led by chairman of investment banking for Middle East and Africa, Miguel Azevedo, and Claude-Stephanie Ngningha, Citi’s head of investment banking in Africa outside South Africa and Egypt.

Citi’s transaction services bankers can be in no doubt of the firm’s commitment to their business. Chief executive Jane Fraser is on record calling the Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) division the crown jewel of the bank and she rarely misses an opportunity to refer to it. The bank invested $1 billion in technology for this business alone in 2022.

Citi’s crown jewels sparkle in a record-breaking year for the business.

Citi’s securities services business has put in an excellent year both in terms of new business and digital innovation.

Citi’s refocused strategy is bearing fruit as growing corporate balance sheets position it for business.

In some years this award is a close decision, with two or three banks vying for the prize. This wasn’t one of those years.

Citi is the standout winner of the award for the region’s best bank for advisory in 2023. In a strong year for M&A, it was way ahead of the pack. It advised on 18 completed deals collectively worth $32.1 billion, giving it a 26.5% share of the market, according to data from Dealogic.

Kevin Lam is to lead the Malaysian bank, becoming the second person within three years to step down as UOB’s TMRW digital head.

The big transaction banks are becoming increasingly active in the B2B marketplace as they seek to cash in on corporate digital transformation.

Relative winners after a year of interest rate hikes include Bank of America and Citigroup. Losers are led by regional US banks, while alternative asset managers argue that higher rates present a historic opportunity.

With more than $740 billion in client assets in its global wealth management business, Citi embodies the modern-day financial behemoth.

Citi’s decision to create a single wealth-management platform in early 2021, Citi Global Wealth (CGW), is bearing fruit.

Citi’s Wealth at Work, which delivers wealth services to white-collar professionals in sectors from law and asset management to private equity, is less than two years old. Its founder and global head Naz Vahid talks to Euromoney about the concept and where the division can go from here.

Restrictions on redundancies force out larger banks in Mexico from bidding for business.

The bank is focusing on organic growth by acquiring retail clients and launching a private bank.

A groundbreaking repo facility for African sovereign Eurobonds was completed in time for a debut trade as COP27 took place. The road to closing the deal was far from simple.

This year has seen banks report markdowns on leveraged finance commitments and related exposures, something that is hardly surprising given what has happened to yields. But even with syndicates struggling to offload some high-profile big deals, the troubles seem oddly muted so far.

Societe Generale has exited, and Citi is winding down in retail, but the two biggest remaining Western European players in Russia are also spending a lot of time working out their exposures and operations in the country.

Amitabh Chaudhry seeks to elevate Axis from its strong position in India to a premium one. The purchase of Citi’s consumer finance business will help – but only if it can keep Citi’s customers.

As European and Chinese banks scale back in Africa to cut costs and redeploy capital to core markets, Middle East lenders are happily jumping in to fill the gap, buying assets and putting more boots on the ground as bilateral trade between the regions increases.

If you want to get ahead in investment banking it is time to hit the beach.

Trading divisions at banks aren’t just offsetting slumping deal fees, they are also becoming more efficient. They could drive an upgrade in equity valuations.

Citi’s strength across the capital markets, allied to an ability to put its balance sheet to good use with key clients, always put it in contention for the award for Africa’s best bank for financing.

Citi’s commitment to its customers, to innovation and to unveiling new products that adapt to the shifting needs and expectations of corporates and regulators put it easily ahead of its rivals this year.

One of the consequences of Citi’s withdrawal from local banking markets in Latin America is that the US bank is especially sensitive to any potential loss of market share in corporate debt financing in the affected countries.

The two most active investment banks in the Caribbean region are Citi and JPMorgan. While it would seem natural to consider them competitors – and of course they are – it is striking how many deals there are in which they team up.

In investment banking, deals were already becoming harder to do in central and eastern Europe before Russia invaded Ukraine, as interest rates began to creep up in the second half of 2021. Executing deals has since become even harder both because of the war and because of those rate rises.

Now, hear us out. A year ago, we were griping about Citi’s decision to sell consumer businesses in a clutch of Asian markets. The only way it made sense, we argued, was if Citi put its money where its mouth is: deployed the freed capital into its wealth and institutional businesses in Asia and doubled down on that with tangible action, rather than the proceeds just drifting into some vague balance-sheet objective.

It was a knife-edge decision between Citi, stronger in top-end cash management, and HSBC, stronger in trade, this year. Last year, we decided trade was the theme to reward in a Covid-blighted year; this year we looked at progress in payments, where Citi had an excellent year.