For PNC Financial, the US’s inaugural best super-regional bank, 2021 was a landmark year in a decade-long national expansion under chief executive Bill Demchak.

Bank of America is thriving. In its home market, it has led the way in retail banking with a distinctive preferred rewards programme that offers retail customers preferential rates across a full range of products from credit cards to mortgages.

Goldman Sachs’s investment bank division excelled during the awards period thanks to a targeted focus on growth sectors such as healthcare, technology and financial sponsor business. This paid off handsomely on its home turf, where the bank dominated the Americas M&A league tables during the awards period, working on 582 deals with a total value of $1.6 trillion for a 30.72% market share. This is slightly ahead of the same period last year where it took 29.52% market share from 408 deals worth $1.15 trillion together.

Truist Securities, the corporate and investment banking division of Truist Financial Corporation, wins Euromoney’s inaugural award for best super-regional investment bank in the US. The award reflects the key role it plays in the domestic financial system, providing critical funding and extending capital-raising services to large corporates and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Celebrating its 190th anniversary this year, making it older than the confederation of Canada itself, Scotiabank has quite a heritage. So does Brian Porter, its chief executive, who has been at the firm for his whole career, stretching back to 1981. But when he took the helm in 2013, his job was to reposition a bank that might best have been described as a mini-HSBC.

BMO Capital Markets is Canada’s best investment bank this year, rewarding the momentum that has propelled it up the advisory and equity capital markets league tables while also gaining ground in debt capital markets.

It was another strong year for Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), which saw increased provisioning at the start of the pandemic but had good performance throughout and is now well placed to benefit from the post-crisis recovery. Once again it is Euromoney’s choice as Canada’s best bank.

The region's best banks, country by country

In a market of more than 5,000 banks, competition in the US is fierce. But among the clutch of sizeable regional banks, one firm has seen a remarkable transition since its IPO in 2014, under the steady leadership of chief executive Bruce Van Saun. Citizens wins the award for the US’s best bank.

The region's best banks, country by country

The region's best banks, country by country

The region's best banks, country by country

TD Securities is far from being the biggest investment bank in Canada, but its performance in the awards period saw it post impressive gains in both its investment banking and markets businesses. After many years, it dislodges its bigger rival RBC Capital Markets to win Euromoney’s award for Canada’s best investment bank.

The region's best banks, country by country

The period of this year’s Euromoney Awards for Excellence, covering almost exactly the complete market cycle of the pandemic, exposed the need for an investment bank franchise to be unusually adaptable if it was to serve clients over that period.

The region's best banks, country by country