When Mauricio Macri won the last presidential election in 2015, the future for Argentina’s banks looked rosy: a spate of international debt and equity deals confirmed the optimism. No one who participated in those deals – including Galicia’s CEO Fabián Kon – thought the country would soon be back to square one.

Bradesco’s digital bank start-up has grown rapidly and is already looking to leave the bank’s existing corporate structure.

Success for pensions reform in the Congress – the long-held litmus test of Brazilian recovery – has buoyed asset prices and led to a flurry of activity.

The rapid fall in interest rates in Brazil, from a peak of 14.25% in 2016 to 6.5% in February 2018, created expectations among analysts that the biggest banks’ famously high net interest margin was finally about to be eroded.

The bank has retrenched, rebranded and grown since 2015.

BTG Pactual

Latin America’s best bank

Banco do Brasil wins the award for the region’s best bank transformation.

Latin America’s best bank for sustainable finance this year is BBVA.

Economic growth is strengthening in central American and the Caribbean. The IMF expects the region to grow at about 2% this year and 2.5% next year.

This year, the region’s best investment bank is BTG Pactual. It climbed back to leadership in its domestic market and grew strongly elsewhere in the region.

The best bank for financing in Latin America is JPMorgan. The bank’s pedigree in debt and structured products isn’t news to anyone who works in investment banking, but in recent years the breadth of its offer has been enhanced by increased depth in client and product coverage.

Digital banking brings opportunities – especially so for startups. Unencumbered by bricks and mortar branches – as well other fixed costs associated with the traditional banks – many purely digital firms have achieved impressive growth.

Argentina Best Bank

The region’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises is Bancolombia.

For the second year running Credit Suisse is Latin America’s best bank for wealth management, this year bolstered by the completion of a three-year turnaround across the whole bank.

As trade disputes between China and the US continue, Latin America has been caught in the middle. Countries across the continent have been forced to choose whether they trade with their American neighbour or their Asian partner.

Despite the headwinds for region’s banks, there were some outstanding performances that demonstrate what can be achieved without macroeconomic support. The best example of this was Santander Brasil, Latin America’s best bank.

This year Bancolombia wins the award for the region’s best bank for corporate responsibility. Some 62% of Bancolombia’s employees are women and 57% of them are in leadership roles. These are some of the highest numbers for women in banking in the world. Why?

Latin America’s best bank for advisory is Goldman Sachs. The bank has continued with its strategy to deliver highly complex, large-scale deals that set it apart from the local and international competition.

BTG Pactual

Argentina’s politicians have played their cards for the coming presidential election – Cristina Kirchner surprised everyone by lining up behind Alberto Fernandez.

$2.5 billion deal makes bank more profitable and a purer ‘Latam’ play; CEO says still huge upside on valuations, and revenue growth to come.

HSBC wants to triple both onshore and offshore revenues, profits and ebitda in Brazil within five years.

Frustration is building quickly in Brazil. What was supposed to be the beginning of a credit cycle – and a structural improvement in long-term economic growth – is becoming just another false dawn.

HSBC, JPMorgan and Mizuho lend Mexico’s oil company $8 billion after investors show no interest in non-deal roadshow – and that’s the least of the firm’s problems.

Move adds offshore platform for private clients; bank argues BAC Florida Bank deal adds to its story as the momentum play in the market.

The investment landscape is shifting rapidly as falling returns on sovereign fixed income assets force investors to look elsewhere for returns. Retail investors in particular are playing an important role in the transformation of local capital markets.

New regulation would see top-12 banks adopt open banking second half of next year; central bank hopes better risk management will lower cost of credit, spur growth.

The 100-day mark of Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has recently passed; no one – not even the government itself – pretended the time had been well spent.