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Banco Santander CIB’s steady progress in Brazil – by far Latin America’s biggest market for financing – coincided with a greater emphasis on local markets financing in 2023. The bank’s sweet spot, straddling local and international debt capital markets, as well as loan financing, meant that it had a very strong year across various debt segments. According to Dealogic, Santander CIB – which is led in the region by Rafael Noya, global head of global debt financing – was the leading underwriter of domestic DCM throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, helped by a second place in Brazil, where it took a 9% share of local issuance. Santander’s local strength was also supported by a strong showing in international DCM.

As India’s second-largest private bank, ICICI Bank has once again demonstrated its ability to outperform its peers. While its formidable competitor, HDFC Bank, has a significant acquisition to digest, ICICI Bank has seized the opportunity to catch up in valuation and surpass market expectations, making it India’s best bank this year.

For its mix of sustainable finance structuring expertise and innovation in retail banking, ING wins the award this year.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has solidified its standing as Australia’s best bank, driven not only by robust financial performance but also by its disciplined approach to margin management. Under the stewardship of chief executive Matt Comyn, the bank has strategically opted not to compete for less profitable mortgage customers to focus on delivering sustainable returns.

As balance sheet pressures have intensified, Morgan Stanley has been at the forefront of a changing financial sector landscape.

CTBC Bank has cemented its position in Taiwan’s best bank over the past year. Driven by its dual track digital innovation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) based transformation, the bank achieved a record net profit of NT$41.3 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2023, with a cost-to-income ratio of 55.16% and a return on equity of 11.9%, the highest among its peers. Revenue and pre-tax profit grew by 16% and 12%, respectively.

The Bolivian financial system has been facing dollar scarcity for more than a year now and the impact on the economy has been predictably negative, with Fitch recently downgrading the country to CCC from B-. It has been a long running crisis, with the strongest and best bank in the system Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz (BMSC), playing an important role in providing much-needed liquidity. One of the peaks of the liquidity crunch came in March 2023 and BMSC played a systemically important role by meeting dollar demand when it had evaporated from many other banks.

After depositors fled the wreckage of the US regional banks in 2023 and customers started jumping overboard from a sinking Credit Suisse, even more banks could have been dragged into a systemic crisis. But UBS, rebuilt after the global financial crisis as a strong, sustainable and well-managed institution, responded to the rescue call from a fellow G-Sib. It rescued Switzerland as a financial centre, stopped the panic from spreading and struck a good deal for its own shareholders. Credit Suisse was not a gift. The integration will be tough. But UBS has got off to a good start and could soon relaunch its own growth story.

For the second year in a row, HSBC walks away with the award for Asia’s best bank – and deservedly so. Outgoing chief executive Noel Quinn’s decisive move in early 2020 to pivot to Asia by redeploying $100 billion in risk-weighted assets has delivered, generating strong new income streams and squeezing more gains from key product lines such as wealth management and transaction banking.

Societe Generale has accelerated its transition and is using important mandates to convince its internal and external audiences alike.

BDO Unibank, the Philippines’ largest bank, turned in an exceptional financial performance in 2023, cementing its position as the country’s best bank.

Goldman Sachs has been the preeminent mergers and acquisitions advisory firm for almost as long as the business has existed in its modern form. Its performance in the difficult environment of 2023 showed how resilient its franchise is, and it once again wins the award for North America’s best bank for advisory.