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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.

Austria’s best bank notched its best result to date last year on the back of a recovery in its emerging Europe operations. But while the group’s international network tended to grab the headlines, the domestic business also put in another strong showing.

The recent trend for growth among local pan-regional banks continues and, in the last year, Grupo Financiero Ficohsa’s acquisition of Citi’s banks in Honduras and Nicaragua shows that it may well be a challenger in the future for BAC International Bank, which retains this year’s award for the best bank in central America and the Caribbean.

Worsening conditions in the energy and commodity sectors were not enough to unsettle RBC Capital Markets in its continued dominance of the Canadian investment banking landscape, for which it again wins Euromoney’s best investment bank in Canada award. Cross-border work continues to be a big theme, with highlights including advising Enbridge on its $43.4 billion merger with Spectra Energy of the US, the largest ever acquisition by a Canadian firm, completed in March 2017. Smaller, but arguably more eye-catching for the way in which it showcased the bank’s ability to act across asset classes when needed, was its financing work for the $13 billion acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group by TransCanada Pipelines.

The small and medium-sized enterprise segment has proved a tough nut for many Romanian banks to crack. Lack of transparency and what local bankers euphemistically call “tax management” by companies can make lending challenging. High levels of NPLs in the sector after the financial crisis have also put a dampener on credit supply to the sector.

For almost 50 years, Euromoney has been the leading publication for covering the growth of international finance. Over the past 12 months its coverage has included interviews with close to 100 bank CEOs, ministers of finance and central bank governors around the world.

It is not often that banks are described as ‘phenomenal’, but that is what some of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s small and medium-sized enterprise clients call it, making it a fitting repeat winner of Euromoney’s award for North America’s best bank for SMEs. Marty Arenson, president of Global Sourcing Connection, a promotional products supplier, switched to the bank in 2008 after previous experiences he says he found horrific in comparison.

Understanding the client’s business and needs is essential for banks in transaction services. But Western Europe’s best bank for transaction services, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, demonstrates a profound knowledge of the changing role of the corporate treasurer.

World's best bank

The shifting dynamics of the M&A market during the awards period has tested the mettle of advisory franchises. Corporates in particular have been wary – for different reasons at different times. The Obama administration had applied aggressive scrutiny that saw deals blocked in sectors such as healthcare, a situation compounded by the natural caution imposed by an upcoming presidential election.