While the main story of the 2022 Latin America awards is the emergence of BTG Pactual as a retail force, the bank’s senior management team, headed by chief executive Roberto Sallouti, clearly hasn’t let the investment banking team take its eye off the ball.

In investment banking, deals were already becoming harder to do in central and eastern Europe before Russia invaded Ukraine, as interest rates began to creep up in the second half of 2021. Executing deals has since become even harder both because of the war and because of those rate rises.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatening vital energy supplies to central and eastern Europe, sustainable finance initiatives – especially in renewable energy – are more important than ever. Regional banks are increasingly focusing on sustainable finance and this year the bank that stands out is ING, CEE’s best bank for sustainable finance.

Now, hear us out. A year ago, we were griping about Citi’s decision to sell consumer businesses in a clutch of Asian markets. The only way it made sense, we argued, was if Citi put its money where its mouth is: deployed the freed capital into its wealth and institutional businesses in Asia and doubled down on that with tangible action, rather than the proceeds just drifting into some vague balance-sheet objective.

It was a knife-edge decision between Citi, stronger in top-end cash management, and HSBC, stronger in trade, this year. Last year, we decided trade was the theme to reward in a Covid-blighted year; this year we looked at progress in payments, where Citi had an excellent year.

For a time after its IPO in August, six-year-old branchless KakaoBank was the largest financial institution in South Korea by market capitalization. That didn’t last through the global tech stock collapse – and was always a little absurd – but the $2.2 billion IPO, which is still trading above its issue price, is a reminder of just how far this institution has come.

Always a strong player in small and medium-sized enterprise banking, DBS enjoyed a stellar year driven by digital investments, careful credit management and great progress in India.

This was, as is the norm, a fight between Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. This year the award changes hands between them and goes to Morgan Stanley for the breadth of its successes.

BNP Paribas is western Europe’s best bank for financing. It ranks first in the Dealogic bookrunner rankings in debt capital markets, ahead of Deutsche Bank in second place, JPMorgan in third, Barclays in fourth and HSBC fifth.

While it has been a leader for many years in European debt and loan financing, BNP Paribas has in recent years built out its secondary markets businesses. It now includes a full service offering in equities as well as fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) across research, secondary markets, prime services, derivatives and capital markets.

Citi retains the award of best bank for financing – one of very few to be retained in a volatile year – for being good at everything it does across the financing space.

CaixaBank has its roots in corporate responsibility. It was founded in 1904 with the aim of fostering savings, retirement planning and disability insurance for the working class. The bank provides an interesting blueprint for CSR today through two institutions: the La Caixa Foundation and MicroBank, its specialist microlender.

As European banks fight back against neobanks such as N26, Wise, Starling, Monzo and Revolut that are taking more of the incumbents’ market share and competing across every service area, it is the Spanish banks who look best placed to match them.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly vulnerable to the economic shocks that have buffeted the region in recent months. Any bank that serves these businesses needs to be acutely aware of the challenges they face and have deep experience across the region in how to deal with them.

The wealth management award is in some measure a decision about a model as much as a bank. For the last few years, we have tended to reward the big Swiss houses, UBS and Credit Suisse, who have scale, history and the advantages of being part of a larger bank. In other years, we might consider the Swiss pure-play model, the ultra-high net-worth-only model, the mass-affluent approach.

Something has been building at JPMorgan. For years, a common question in the industry has been: why isn’t the bank, for all its global strength, doing better in Asia? It has always been close to the top in Asian investment banking but rarely troubles Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley at the very highest table.

This year we acknowledge the transformation under way at Bank BTN, also known as Persero.

In a record 12 months for M&A volumes, the big US banks dominated the revenue and volume league tables in Europe while, as usual, Rothschild advised on a higher number of transactions than any other firm.

Banking in Europe remains a national sport, with only a handful of domestic champions also running large businesses beyond their home markets. Banco Santander is recognized as the region’s best bank this year as a reflection of its progress in moving operations in Portugal, Spain and the UK onto a single operating platform along with those in Poland, which it also includes in its Europe division.

HSBC approaches sustainable finance on a different canvas to everyone else. All houses can highlight great environmental, social and governance deals by now, but HSBC doesn’t just want to tell you about a green bond or a sustainability financing. It wants to talk about shaping policy with assistance to governments and regulators; about how sustainable finance goes all the way through its banking offering to trade finance and cash management, to sustainability-linked interest rate swaps and recycled PVC credit cards.

Western Europe’s best bank for wealth management this year is UBS. In Euromoney’s private banking and wealth management survey for 2022 the Swiss bank held off a stern challenge from JPMorgan to be named once again as the leading provider in the region.

Always a strong candidate in this category, BNP Paribas has made great progress in its ambitious decarbonization commitments this year, in addition to prioritizing high social-impact and inclusive-finance goals.

Malaysia’s RHB Bank is a big believer in the power of education to elevate people out of poverty and underprivilege.

The geopolitical shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of the awards period has compounded the challenges faced by treasury teams that were emerging from the impact of the Covid pandemic. The ability to assist corporates facing severe stress in their supply chains or in their working-capital requirements quickly, flexibly and effectively is a must under these conditions. UniCredit is again named western Europe’s best bank for transaction services in recognition of the progress that it has made in this regard.

Earlier this year, JPMorgan was named the best wealth manager in the US in Euromoney’s private banking and wealth management survey for 2022. It was also named as best for the ultra-high net-worth segment – classified as individuals or families with $30 million to $250 million in assets.

The busiest 12 months ever in M&A fit perfectly with the investments Goldman Sachs has been making in its advisory business.

The North American capital markets witnessed unprecedented levels of activity over the awards period and Morgan Stanley has demonstrated an impressive ability to come up with differentiated advice and solid execution across all its financing businesses.

Climate-related issues have always dominated sustainable finance, so it may raise a few eyebrows that Euromoney has named as North America’s best bank for sustainable finance a firm that saw its fossil-fuel investments jump by 87% in 2021. Indeed, until very recently, this year’s winner still boasted a long-running membership of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which it has now let lapse.

In a year in which businesses were emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with a strong demand for capital to finance expansion in real estate, manufacturing equipment and distribution facilities, Bank of America was able to offer unmatched support.

This year, the world’s best digital bank is also North America’s best digital bank. Citi continues to bolt clever new services onto its ever-expanding yet increasingly integrated digital platform and to upgrade at a furious pace.