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Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s operations in western Europe over the last year have seen the bank develop its own structure to keep pace in a market that is both exciting and volatile, making it western Europe’s best bank for transaction services.

Africa’s best investment bank, Standard Chartered, owes its success to its pre-eminence in foreign exchange, debt capital markets, loans, advisory, structured products and research.

The French bank has committed itself to sustainable finance across its entire business.

Western Europe's best bank

When it comes to big, transformative cross-border M&A deals, no firm matches Goldman

After heavy investment in Mexico, Credit Suisse is now firmly rooted in the two largest markets in Latin America where it has a unique offering by having an investment bank, an asset manager and a wealth manager – all with a global footprint. After hiring 30 new people in Mexico, the bank saw net new assets increase by double digits last year.

The bank that has led the way over the last year is Banco Santander, western Europe’s best bank. Santander is already one of the few big banks to prove that internationally diversified retail banks can be more profitable and more stable than domestically focused peers. Now it is in its rightful place, not just Spain’s biggest bank but also the one with the biggest domestic share.

Not just revenues but also returns are behind the success this year of UBS, western Europe’s best investment bank. The Swiss firm stands out for a distribution and advisory-led business that has attracted fewer of the kind of questions over its sustainability that others have had to endure.More activity in the primary equity markets in western Europe, particularly in Switzerland, played to UBS’s strengths. Its equity capital markets revenues rose by 56% to SFr1 billion ($1.01 billion) in 2017 and were again up in the first quarter of 2018. It was global coordinator on the SFr2.4 billion IPO of electricity meter firm Landis+Gyr, a SFr2.3 billion rights issue for Lonza and on Galenica Santé’s SFr1.9 billion IPO. It was also global coordinator on Santander’s €7.1 billion rights issue.

What is striking about BBVA’s operations in Latin America is how the bank is willing adapt to regional demands. At a time when its Spanish operations are grappling with the arrival of open banking and real-time payments, the bank knows that having staff on the ground in Latin America is the main concern of its customers.

Austria

The period under review for Euromoney’s Awards for excellence neatly captured a peak of strong performance by banks and investment banks in Latin America. Between April 1, 2017 and the end of March this year, there was a return to positive growth and, probably more importantly, genuine optimism about the fortunes of two of the largest economies in the south of the region, Argentina and Brazil.

Garanti Bank has not only led the financial industry in Turkey with its environmental policies but also the whole corporate sector. For example, it was the first Turkish company to sign the UN Global Compact’s Business Leadership Criteria on Carbon Pricing. And last year it took this one step further, becoming the only financial institution in the world to be included in the 2017 CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) Water A List – one of just 78 companies that meet the highest standards for water security. Garanti is CEE’s best bank for sustainable finance.