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There are few banks that can advise wealthy clients across the multitude of different countries and cultures in CEE, but UniCredit has made itself the bank of choice for clients in nearly every single one, earning it the award for best bank for wealth management. Its focus for the last 12 months has been one of organic growth and innovation. The bank has focused on structured products.

To be a top bank in the financing arena in the last 12 months, you need to have demonstrated flexibility. The ability to move quickly from one market or currency to another, or to switch between different parts of the capital structure, requires product strength and the kind of internal coordination that many banks preach but few practise. One that has consistently made a virtue of such flexibility is Bank of America Merrill Lynch, our pick for North America’s best bank for financing.

Julius Baer’s strategy of commitment, investment and hiring – when many of its peers have been retreating – has enabled the bank to become a global leader in wealth management.

Two years into its small and medium-sized enterprise initiative, the bank is working hard at its focused sector offering. It is paying off.

Kenya Commercial Bank wins this year’s award for best bank for corporate social responsibility in Africa for the work of the KCB Foundation and, in particular, two ground-breaking initiatives. Last year, it launched 2jiajiri (‘let’s employ ourselves’) – a youth enterprise development and employment initiative that works in partnership with more than 100 technical training institutions across Kenya. More than 12,000 students have taken part so far in the programme, which aims to turn young people into entrepreneurs by training them and connecting them to graduates in law, accounting and marketing to help them get their businesses off-the-ground.

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.

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.

The investment bank has come through more than a decade of difficulties to become the momentum firm on Wall Street once again. The last piece of the puzzle, making its fixed income business fit for purpose, is now in place. Morgan Stanley is working together as a firm better than ever before. Its people have their swagger back. And the architects of this renaissance are determined to press home their advantage with a ruthless approach to deploying the firm’s capital – both financial and human.

Africa has been a difficult market to contend with over the last year, for both local and international banks operating across the continent. But with a widespread local and correspondent banking presence, Citi has taken this year’s award for Africa’s best bank in transaction services.

Cheap financing helped big M&A deals continue to proliferate in Europe over the period of these awards. Western Europe’s best bank for advisory, UBS, has experience of the pinnacle of the trend for Chinese M&A in Europe, acting on the Swiss side of ChemChina’s $50 billion takeover of Syngenta, which was reaching closure at the end of the awards period. The bank’s work also included a defence against a less attractive offer by Monsanto.

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).

Bank of America Merrill Lynch wins the award for the best investment bank in the region.