It is rare for financial market professionals to feel they are helping to save the world, but a new capital markets deal from the World Bank to help the poorest countries cope with pandemics might be doing just that

Why did CIMB sell half its international brokerage business to China Galaxy? It is a coincidence of interests: survival on one side, expansion on the other

Sometimes we can’t see the trees for looking at the woods.

Azeri default reminds investors that implicit guarantees aren’t worth the paper they’re not written on.

Renegotiated and restructured debt lengthening NPL cycle; Bradesco and Santander to benefit most from better cost of risk.

Euromoney’s latest Country Risk Survey shows a gradual rebalancing of risk scores this year, as the aftershocks of the global banking and sovereign debt crises wear off, political risks tied to the European electoral cycle fade, and capital access improves for EMs.

UniCredit continues its hold on the top spot in emerging Europe transaction services, thanks to a strong market presence and a continued push to link up the countries in the region.

This year’s best bank award recognizes Erste Group’s achievements in completing the protracted restructuring of its network and positioning itself to take advantage of growth opportunities in the region, while at the same time meeting the challenges of technology.

Citi was knocked off the top spot in DCM in emerging Europe last year but remains a dominant force in CEE investment banking thanks to its unrivalled on-the-ground presence in the region. The US house has commercial banking operations in Russia, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic, as well as offices in Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Slovakia. These are coordinated with a 22-strong team in Citi’s CEE banking hub in London. Citi is the winner of our award for the best bank for financing in the region.

The small and medium-sized enterprise segment has proved a tough nut for many Romanian banks to crack. Lack of transparency and what local bankers euphemistically call “tax management” by companies can make lending challenging. High levels of NPLs in the sector after the financial crisis have also put a dampener on credit supply to the sector.

The award for best bank for wealth management in Africa this year goes to Standard Bank. With R79 billion ($6.14 billion) in wealth and investment assets under advisory, Standard Bank is Africa’s largest wealth manager.

Last year’s winner of the newly minted award for financing in Africa was Citi, and Citi again did well in the last 12 months. But Absa wins the award this time round, thanks in large part to its impressive work in South Africa.

Last year’s winner of best for markets in Africa – Standard Bank – was unable to hold off competition from Standard Chartered this year. With its 56 people-strong Africa sales team and trading team of 28 – making it the largest on the ground – Standard Chartered was difficult to beat.

Angola’s economy continues to suffer from low oil prices, a poorly functioning system of government and the influence of the state on the private sector.

Lending to small and medium-sized enterprises is an important part of banking in Africa, and an area of business that requires ever more support from the continent’s banks. Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) dominated the sector over the last year and so wins the title of best bank for SMEs.

The pace of digital development across CEE’s banking sectors over the past decade has varied widely. Some markets remain mired in cumbersome post-Communist processes and paperwork, while others are at the forefront of global innovation.

For almost 50 years, Euromoney has been the leading publication for covering the growth of international finance. Over the past 12 months its coverage has included interviews with close to 100 bank CEOs, ministers of finance and central bank governors around the world.

Every bank in Africa is going digital, or at least saying that it is. Ecobank’s claims were certainly not empty statements as the pan-African bank demonstrated, for example, by launching a new mobile application in 2016. Ecobank is this year’s worthy winner of best digital bank in Africa.

This year’s winner of best bank in Africa is a marked departure from last year’s. After Equity Bank’s win in 2016, thanks to its dominance in the small and medium-sized enterprise and digital banking sectors, this year we reward Attijariwafa Bank, a financial institution that has long been the best in Morocco and is now asserting its credentials in the rest of Africa.

In a year that was difficult for much of Africa because of low commodity prices and especially the price of oil, which dragged down deal activity, one investment bank outshone its peers, managing to remain busy throughout the period. That bank was Citi, which wins this year’s best investment bank in Africa award.

When Erste bought Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) in 2005, the bank came with a lot of baggage. As the main financier of Romania’s corporate sector through much of the post-Communist period, it was deeply embedded in the power structures of a country notorious for bad governance and lack of transparency.

Given the tough market conditions in South Africa, a focus for Rand Merchant Bank was outbound M&A and private equity. The success of this strategy helped make it the best bank for advisory in Africa.

This year’s award for best bank transformation in Africa goes to National Microfinance Bank of Tanzania, a bank which has become a model for other African institutions in the areas of mobile banking, SME lending and microfinance.

Africa has been a difficult market to contend with over the last year, for both local and international banks operating across the continent. But with a widespread local and correspondent banking presence, Citi has taken this year’s award for Africa’s best bank in transaction services.

This year’s award for best bank for markets in CEE goes to Wood & Co, the region’s leading independent investment bank. Founded in Prague in 1991, the firm has since expanded to cover the whole of emerging Europe.

Rothschild once again proved that an independent firm can hold its own in advisory against both bulge-bracket and regional banks in CEE in the awards period, winning mandates on some of the biggest M&A deals in the region as well as advising on a clutch of high-profile financing transactions.

Kenya Commercial Bank wins this year’s award for best bank for corporate social responsibility in Africa for the work of the KCB Foundation and, in particular, two ground-breaking initiatives. Last year, it launched 2jiajiri (‘let’s employ ourselves’) – a youth enterprise development and employment initiative that works in partnership with more than 100 technical training institutions across Kenya. More than 12,000 students have taken part so far in the programme, which aims to turn young people into entrepreneurs by training them and connecting them to graduates in law, accounting and marketing to help them get their businesses off-the-ground.

There are few banks that can advise wealthy clients across the multitude of different countries and cultures in CEE, but UniCredit has made itself the bank of choice for clients in nearly every single one, earning it the award for best bank for wealth management. Its focus for the last 12 months has been one of organic growth and innovation. The bank has focused on structured products.

Investment bankers covering CEE breathed a sigh of relief last year as their market sprang back to life after two years in the doldrums. Eurobond sales from the region rose nearly 60% in the 12 months to March from a year earlier, according to Dealogic, while primary equity issuance more than trebled. The trend was less marked in M&A, which had proved more resilient during the regional downturn, but a 28% increase in transaction volumes was nonetheless welcome.

As Stuart Gulliver’s time as chief executive of HSBC runs down, the moment has come to acknowledge his achievement in managing the remarkable transformation of one of the world’s biggest, most complex banks. Once a diffuse portfolio of unconnected banking franchises, it now starts to look much more like the jewel it should be: a properly managed network that can serve customers and reward shareholders by handling global trade and capital flows.