Investment in Asia, combined with a willingness to blaze a trail, makes Credit Suisse an indispensable banking partner for clients in emerging markets.

Tidjane Thiam’s radical three-year plan, which has reinvented Credit Suisse with wealth management at its core, is starting to pay off.

Austria

Bank of America and Citi win top prizes; Credit Suisse’s Tidjane Thiam is named Banker of the Year; Asian banks make their mark in global awards.

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It has taken a while, but a corner has been turned.

Wealth management remains a hotly contested field in Middle Eastern banking, especially as an ever-larger number of banks strive to enter Saudi Arabia, one of the most exciting markets in the region thanks to its many high net-worth individuals and growing openness to foreign financial institutions.

The outlook for both Credit Suisse and Brazil is better than it has been in years, and CEO José Olympio Pereira has his eyes firmly focused on the opportunities coming his way.

The XIV note blow-up highlights risks lurking in the opaque market in structured notes, but also obscures potential benefits for a wider group of investors and issuers if the market could be opened up.

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UBS Wealth Management voted best global private bank; private banks more bullish on revenues; hiring to increase.

While other parts of finance splinter and specialize, in wealth management it looks like bigger really does mean better: UBS wins Euromoney’s Private Banking 2018 survey yet again and the big global franchises continue to take the lion’s share of the industry.

…and how wealth management can have a brighter future.

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

Credit Suisse leads banks with coalition for investments; forest resilience bond slated for next year.

Tidjane Thiam needs to prove that the new-look Credit Suisse can thrive and not just survive - and he might just do it

Jürg Zeltner inspired UBS to regain its position as the world’s best private bank, and his departure has shocked many in the industry – what will he do next?

Marisa Drew has gone from being one of Credit Suisse’s most senior investment bankers to overseeing the Swiss group’s new global impact finance and advisory division, reporting directly to group chief executive Tidjane Thiam. Clients are curious. Should competitors take note?

Hard-ball US-style activism is unlikely to succeed in Europe.

After breakthrough proofs of concept in the spring, two large projects are now quietly moving forward into pilot production that could see blockchain technology transform wholesale markets at the core of the global financial system.

At Credit Suisse, the Asia-Pacific wealth management business is tasked with little short of saving the whole bank worldwide. While the bank struggles globally, it has at least had the common sense to deploy capital in the places it is good at, specifically serving Asia-Pacific entrepreneurs. That makes the bank our winner for Asian wealth management.

The best bank for financing award will surprise those who set great store in league tables – but maybe they have been looking at the wrong league tables. While Credit Suisse is not a leader in volume terms, and in some areas is far from it, Dealogic data show that it is one of the most profitable houses across investment banking. In fact during the awards period, if Australia is added to ex-Japan Asia, no house made more from public deals in the region.

Euromoney has never before given an award in Afghanistan, but the story of Azizi Bank is compelling. Formed by an ethnic business group in 2006 and owned by Dubai’s Azizi Group, it took over the Development Bank of Afghanistan from the central bank in 2009, then India’s Punjab National Bank in 2014. It is Afghanistan’s largest commercial bank, with more than 140 branches and a million customers, and employs 2,300 people, 17% of them women, which does not sound a lot but matters in Afghanistan.

Overall market share Overall banks only Overall non-bank liquidity providers only Spot/forward market share Swap market share Options market share Emerging market currencies market share

The region’s wealthy are another group increasingly targeted by both local and international banks. The regional wealth management award goes to a firm with global breadth and expertise in this area, Credit Suisse, which also keeps the top spot in the Middle East in Euromoney’s 2017 private banking survey.

Commercial International Bank wins region’s best bank award; winners reflect year of reform and easing bank liquidity; record year for Gulf debt capital markets sees HSBC retaining investment-banking title, while local and international banks do battle for regional and domestic awards.

Rumours that a listing for the Swiss universal bank might be shelved cast doubt on the CEO’s strategy for Credit Suisse.

More than 2,000 private banks took part in the 2017 Euromoney private banking survey. See who’s up and who’s down globally, regionally and by country.

UBS Wealth Management voted best global private bank; new regional winners; private banks less bullish on revenues; non-bank competition a minor concern.