Retaining its title from last year, Morgan Stanley is North America’s best bank for wealth management. With $2.46 trillion under management, it is among the top three largest wealth managers in the world and sets the standard for others.

NLB Banka

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.

Citi’s worldwide presence is proving an asset as new regional trading blocs emerge.

The firm has done well at home and in the region. Part of that is down to its ownership structure, and the rest is because growth is part of its DNA.

In an industry of fast-paced change, this is the bank that is not only engaged with but driving change for the benefit of its customers.

When Alfa-Bank began focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises 10 years ago, the segment was largely ignored by Russia’s leading banks. Customer service was nonexistent and access to finance was limited, especially for smaller firms.

The financial industry was designed to create opportunity in communities – Bank of America works tirelessly to ensure that opportunity is open to everyone.

Through thoughtful and innovative community initiatives, as well as changes to policies and product development, BNP Paribas is helping to implement the UN’s sustainable development goals.

With sustainability integrated in every business line, across geographies, with a commitment to innovation and standard setting, HSBC is central to the evolution of sustainable finance.

JPMorgan today dominates the global corporate and investment banking landscape. The key to success? A long-term strategy led by group co-president and CIB chief Daniel Pinto, and a management team that keeps the business in a constant state of reinvention.

Almost 10 years into his role as chief executive of Singapore-based DBS, Piyush Gupta has spent the last six of them on a mission to make an institution that looks more like a tech company than a bank. His message and methods are working, as digital disruption shreds costs and creates new revenue streams. Has DBS created the template for how successful banks will need to look in the future?

The Singapore-based bank has developed into a business fit for purpose in the modern world. Is this the model for the bank of the future?

BTG Pactual

GoPay is southeast Asia’s answer to Ant Financial. Its CEO comes with a background in the most micro level of finance: empowering village housewives to buy things to cook with. How will he build a business backed by the biggest names in global private equity?

Video interview with Ebele Ogbue, general manager of UBA Energy Bank and Andrew Martin, CEO of UBA UK.

Khan Bank

DBS, under CEO Piyush Gupta, is not the biggest name in transaction services in Asia, but it is the one that impresses most in its trajectory.

It is a big ask to win any Euromoney award for three years consecutively, but DBS’s leadership in the digital realm is unarguable.

After two years, OCBC loses its crown to local peer DBS this year as Euromoney’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises. The two Singapore houses remain almost unique in building a meaningful SME business that operates across borders.

DBS

The firm has consistently demonstrated its commitment to work alongside communities and support their growth.

Global growth provided the backdrop for a strong year for Citi’s financing businesses, while the return of volatility has showcased the value of its great reach

Improving social mobility, caring in the community, supporting employees in challenging times and committing to equity – Bank of America has shown a long-standing commitment to D&I.

The firm is a genuine contender in investment banking in every region of the world.

Bank of America sets the standard for the new era of banking.

The firm is leveraging the efficiency and craft it has built in digital to take it into the markets that surround its home base.

DBS is an institution in which every part of the business – from cash management to private banking, from SMEs to retail – is being enriched by a challenging process of wilful digital disruption.

Having stabilized the bank after the financial crisis, Bank of America’s management conceived a simple plan for its future: maintain a diverse set of businesses but deal with less risky customers; provide them with fewer, simpler products; automate for efficiency; and then grow by doing more for these customers. Easy to say, but hard to do – it took time and billions of dollars of investment. With results now shining through, the bank that once looked too big to succeed has a shot at domination.

The old charges against Citi’s wholesale banking division no longer apply. Its scale and breadth are a big positive that no other bank can match. Its diversity and balance are clear strengths that its competitors increasingly envy. As a firm, it’s more joined up than anyone thought possible. And its clients value what Citi can deliver more than ever before.