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This year’s best bank award recognizes Erste Group’s achievements in completing the protracted restructuring of its network and positioning itself to take advantage of growth opportunities in the region, while at the same time meeting the challenges of technology.

Success in emerging markets demands nimble risk management and deep knowledge. CIB has demonstrated that it has both.

Citi was knocked off the top spot in DCM in emerging Europe last year but remains a dominant force in CEE investment banking thanks to its unrivalled on-the-ground presence in the region. The US house has commercial banking operations in Russia, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic, as well as offices in Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Slovakia. These are coordinated with a 22-strong team in Citi’s CEE banking hub in London. Citi is the winner of our award for the best bank for financing in the region.

The award for best bank for wealth management in Africa this year goes to Standard Bank. With R79 billion ($6.14 billion) in wealth and investment assets under advisory, Standard Bank is Africa’s largest wealth manager.

In a year when the geopolitical environment and the outlook for interest rates took several dramatic turns, investment banks with strength in fixed income and deep local understanding were at an advantage in our award for best bank for markets.

With all the factors that can affect the success and failure of an enterprise, financing SME clients can be a risky business – and one that many banks do not feel is worth the effort for the relatively small volumes of financing activity involved.

Investment bankers covering CEE breathed a sigh of relief last year as their market sprang back to life after two years in the doldrums. Eurobond sales from the region rose nearly 60% in the 12 months to March from a year earlier, according to Dealogic, while primary equity issuance more than trebled. The trend was less marked in M&A, which had proved more resilient during the regional downturn, but a 28% increase in transaction volumes was nonetheless welcome.

The best bank transformation of the year award goes to Santander Brasil.

When Erste bought Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) in 2005, the bank came with a lot of baggage. As the main financier of Romania’s corporate sector through much of the post-Communist period, it was deeply embedded in the power structures of a country notorious for bad governance and lack of transparency.

From challenging views on diversity in advertising to increasing productivity through homeworking initiatives, Lloyds is changing the way the corporations and society tackle D&I.

The narrative in the Albanian banking sector was unchanged last year as Banka Kombetare Tregtare (BKT) continued to assert its dominance over former market leader Raiffeisen Bank. By the end of December, the Turkish-owned lender accounted for more than a quarter of all deposits in the country and nearly 22% of overall loans, while its Austrian rival saw its share of both markets slip to below 20%.

This year’s award for best bank for markets in CEE goes to Wood & Co, the region’s leading independent investment bank. Founded in Prague in 1991, the firm has since expanded to cover the whole of emerging Europe.