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Under Thiago Fernandes, head of environmental, social and governance (ESG) for Latin America, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is changing the way corporate philanthropy operates in Brazil; this year it wins Euromoney’s award for Latin America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.

Austria

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.

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

In western Europe, one bank stands out for its expertise in meeting the needs of high net-worth and ultra-high net-worth individuals – Credit Suisse, western Europe’s best bank for wealth management. Credit Suisse’s private banking revenues in western Europe recorded double digit growth in 2017 and it has enjoyed nine consecutive quarters of positive net new assets across all countries in the region.

This award goes to HSBC for its transformation of HSBC Mexico. As Euromoney has reported a number of times in recent years, the weak performance of the bank – coupled with the wider strategic retreat of the bank from some Latin American retail markets – had led to expectations that it would be sold.

The US firm is now the top non-universal bank in global sales and trading – a remarkable turnaround in a business that was struggling just five years ago

When western European banking groups went on spending sprees in the former communist bloc before the financial crisis, they met little competition from within the region. Few local lenders at the time had either the appetite or the capacity for large-scale cross-border expansion.

Market conditions may not have been favourable in Nigeria in the first half of 2017, but that only makes Chapel Hill Denham’s ability to catch up from the third quarter onwards all the more impressive.

The bank has shown leadership in digital simplification and delivering innovative solutions to clients.

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.

As treasurers see changes across the digital and regulatory landscape, they are also grappling with the arrival of new legislation. So having a strong footprint in multiple markets can be invaluable for a bank when clients are coming for advice. Those who are customers with HSBC, North America’s best bank for transaction services, are seeing the advantages.