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Morgan Stanley was an early adopter in using technology to better serve its wealth management clients – and to improve revenues. The bank’s wealth management unit notched a record $1.16 billion in profits during the first three months of this year, up 1% from the fourth quarter and up 19% from a year earlier. Client assets grew 8% from a year earlier to $2.4 trillion, earning it the award for North America’s best bank for wealth management.

Real success, not just in developing innovative solutions but also in getting more clients online and onto its app, makes CaixaBank western Europe’s best digital bank. Spain has the highest proportion of online bank users among the big five European economies and CaixaBank has Spain’s most frequently used bank desktop site and app, according to a recent study by comScore. CaixaBank itself counts more than five million online users and more than four million mobile app users. It was also one of the top banks in a recent digitalization ranking of European firms by Autonomous Rsearch.

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

On the back of the worst drought in living memory, the City of Cape Town issued South Africa’s first true green bond last year. It turned to one bank to be the lead arranger – Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). The city was able to raise R1 billion ($73 million) from eight allocated bidders, having received bids of almost R5 billion from 31 different bidders. The proceeds will be put to use financing green projects such as emergency water supply initiatives.

Africa's best bank

Algeria

With an onshore presence since 1993, Credit Suisse has long dominated private banking in Russia, despite a potential upset in 2015 when an investigation was launched into one of its bankers in the Russian business. As testimony to its depth of relationships in the region’s largest ultra-high net-worth market, the bank has instead gone from strength to strength. Over the last two years, its private bank has achieved double-digit revenue growth and recruited 30 new relationship managers in 2017 alone.

This year’s winner of Africa’s best bank transformation is a bank that, although small, has made big changes so that it is ready for growth and a more international future.

CEE's best bank

The winner of this year’s award for CEE’s best digital bank is a global byword for innovation. Founded in 2000 as the retail arm of corporate lender BRE Bank, mBank was Poland’s first online bank and has managed to maintain its first-mover advantage despite intense competition in recent years.

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

Most bankers working in Africa today believe that SME financing is the most vital contribution banking can make to the economic development of the continent. Yet the amount of credit lent to smaller African enterprises remains very low.