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A seventh year of record earnings in the fiscal period 2016 – and a first half of 2017 that promises another blockbuster year – saw TD Bank prove yet again that it is the franchise to beat in Canada. The firm’s unrivalled breadth and depth secure it Euromoney’s best bank in Canada award for another year. CEO Bharat Masrani, who only assumed the top job in 2015, was characteristically understated in his assessment of the bank’s most recent two quarterly results, declaring himself “pleased” with the firm’s 14% year-on-year rise in earnings in the first quarter and noting that “all of our business segments performed well” in the second quarter – which saw an even more remarkable 22% rise.

Solving the challenge of the world’s unbanked is going to take investment, innovation, and an ability to bring together key players in payments, fintech and microfinance. No bank is quite as committed to that combination as Citi.

It is hard to find a more thoughtful bank in central and eastern Europe than Poland’s Bank Millennium, which is why this year it wins the award for best bank for corporate social responsibility (CSR). The bank provides full transparency around its objectives and actions to bring socially responsible banking to clients, employees, investors and society. For clients, two of the chief aims have been to focus on disabilities and financial exclusion.

The French bank is firmly in expansion mode in corporate banking, on a much more global level than you might expect, and fully grasping how to serve their clients digitally.

Given the tough market conditions in South Africa, a focus for Rand Merchant Bank was outbound M&A and private equity. The success of this strategy helped make it the best bank for advisory in Africa.

Financing, and particularly debt, is one area where European investment banks can still have a grip on their home markets. Many are already reaping the benefits of having shifted to a more capital-efficient deployment of their balance sheets.

The €610 million sale of United Bulgaria Bank (UBB) says much about the work National Bank of Greece has done to re-orientate its business model over the last year. These are praiseworthy, if somewhat belated, actions by the Greek bank. But the UBB deal says even more about the benefits of earlier actions by the acquiring bank to refocus on core countries and businesses.

Whatever clients need to do, it is a fair bet that Morgan Stanley can help them do it. The firm’s business this year in North America was no exception, and while from a league table perspective it is in M&A advisory that Morgan Stanley truly excels, its innovation and skill in all areas make it our choice for best investment bank in the US. Morgan Stanley likes uncertain markets more than some – it reckons volatile conditions are when it can best show its prowess. Nowhere was this shown better than in the unregistered block trade that the bank executed on behalf of Abbott Laboratories, which wanted to sell 44 million shares of Mylan in what was the second largest unregistered block ever.

This year’s winner of best bank in Africa is a marked departure from last year’s. After Equity Bank’s win in 2016, thanks to its dominance in the small and medium-sized enterprise and digital banking sectors, this year we reward Attijariwafa Bank, a financial institution that has long been the best in Morocco and is now asserting its credentials in the rest of Africa.

Integrating CSR in every business and pioneering new structures in affordable housing and green finance, Bank of America shows that good corporate citizenship is also good business.

Citi wins the award for best bank for markets in Latin America. The US bank maintains a very wide presence in the region and is a strong competitor across the board. Led by regional head of markets and securities services, Jaime Roblesgil, the bank has been focusing on building up its controls in recent years, in alignment with its global practices. Coordination is vital. Citi has 530 personnel operating in 21 countries in the region (as well as in Miami and New York).

Citi is perhaps the only global markets business remaining that shows that scale and breadth – both geographically and by product – can deliver good returns.