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Early signs of recovery in the eurozone brought relief to struggling economies across emerging Europe last year but the picture remained very mixed. Countries such as Turkey, Romania and Hungary had a substantial pick-up in growth, but the core central European markets of Poland and Czech Republic were slower to recover from their respective slowdowns. Meanwhile Croatia remained mired in recession, and Russia and Ukraine showed every sign of emulating it even, before the outbreak of the Crimean crisis.

Last year’s launch of the Institute for Sustainable Investing tipped the scales in favour of this bank in a competitive field brimming with impressive work.

The bank has beaten off increasing competition by arranging an impressive number and range of deals across emerging markets.

The Spanish bank is wired up to become the world’s leading digital bank thanks to the vision of its chief executive

A highly specialized cross-asset structuring team has placed Deutsche at the forefront of risk management solutions

A more cohesive, flatter management structure has kept the venerable investment bank ahead of its challengers.

The Argentine government is attempting to re-integrate its economy into the rest of the world. The recent debt repayment agreement with the Paris Club is the latest evidence of tentative reductions in political risk. The run-up to the 2015 presidential election looks set to be one of gradual growth, but the economy in which local banks are operating and the persistence of strict government regulations on lending rates to retail SME segments still present operational challenges.

This year, Euromoney’s best bank in Africa is Nigerian player Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank). It stands out not only because of its stellar performance in its home country, but precisely because the bank represents a new standard of local expertise in Nigeria and is successfully delivering on its regional ambitions.

Euromoney’s best bank in the US for 2014 is Wells Fargo. It serves one in five households in the US, as well as more small businesses than any other bank. It’s an enormous enterprise, with 6,200 branches across the country and $1.07 trillion in deposits, yet it continues to operate with the same feel and eye for detail as a community bank.

After five years of balkanization of the European banking system, with many national champions abandoning international ambitions, selling out of positions that commanded little share in foreign markets to repatriate capital that domestic regulators have pressured them to conserve close to home, there are hardly any European banks left worthy of the name.

Another strong performance in a challenging operating environment earned Banka Kombetare Tregtare (BKT) the top spot in Albania again this year. Despite almost nonexistent growth in the wider economy, the country’s number two lender leveraged its dominant position in the retail market to expand its loan book by 3.7% and its deposit base by an impressive 14.4%, boosting its share of the overall deposit market by 1.8 percentage points to 21.9%. BKT was also one of very few Albanian lenders to see an improvement in its bottom line in 2013, with net profit up 27.1% to a sector-best $39.3 million. Return on equity was slightly below the bank’s long-term average, but remained healthy at 16.6% for the full year, and was back up to 17.5% in the first quarter of 2014.

Strength and expertise across borders, industries and products are just some of the enduring hallmarks of a powerful franchise.