Citi saw impressive growth over 2023 with revenue growth of 16% year on year.

OCBC wins the award as Singapore's best digital bank this year for enhancing its digital banking service through a series of initiatives designed to deepen engagement and improve the user experience across its platforms.

Hana Bank accounted for 13% of system loans and 15% of system deposits in South Korea by the end of 2023. The bank enjoys a strong domestic franchise, particularly in corporate banking, which has driven a sustained improvement in profitability despite the challenging economic backdrop.

Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) – established in 2021 following the merger of Bank BRI Syariah, Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank BNI Syariah – is a leader in Indonesia’s shariah banking system. It had reached 19 million customers by May 2023, and is Indonesia's sixth-largest bank.

For its range of initiatives and substantial investment in supporting social and environmental issues in the special administrative region, Bank of China (Hong Kong) wins the award this year.

Citi secures the award for Korea’s best investment bank in recognition of its comprehensive range of activity across M&A advisory, debt capital markets and equity capital markets.

In 2023, Citi saw operating revenues reach around ¥139 billion ($860 million) and total assets climb to ¥6,097 billion.

Citi saw impressive growth across its corporate banking services in Hong Kong in 2023. It saw year-on-year growth in its loan portfolio and funded several significant environmental, social and governance (ESG) financing transactions.

Cathay United Bank improved its digital customer service last year and employed artificial intelligence and big data tools to better understand its customers’ credit metrics. This resulted in record digital growth for the bank, with digital user penetration up by nearly 50% over 2022.

RCBC launched its new RCBC Pulz digital banking app in 2023 and continued to support for digital inclusion.

RCBC expanded its digital offering for small and medium-sized enterprises and saw impressive growth in the segment in 2023. The SME loans portfolio grew by 16.6% to P125.3 billion ($2.15 billion) over the year.

Newly onboarded corporate customers at HSBC grew by 21% last year. It introduced Smartserve, which reduces the number of days required to open an account, and Omni Collect, which simplifies the way businesses collect payments.

In 2023, HSBC saw its market share of foreign investment into Malaysia reach 30% of total assets under management, making it the leading custodian and clearing bank for foreign institutional investors investing in country’s capital markets. HSBCnet Get Rate, which provides its Malaysian customers with automatic preferential FX rates, was upgraded to allow 24/7 FX booking for companies with EU and US headquarters.

HSBC grew profit before tax by 188% in 2023 to SLR38.2 billion ($126 million).

HSBC had a good year in India in 2023, with profits up by 19% to $1.51 billion, from $1.27 billion the previous year.

HSBC achieved robust growth in 2023 with net profit growing 26% to total $566 million, with growth coming from its commercial, wealth and personal banking businesses.

Throughout 2023, HSBC expanded its presence in the mainland Chinese market, strengthening its operations and advancing strategic initiatives across many sectors.

HSBC introduced initiatives to tackle parental leave, diversity in its hiring process and to improve support for its transgender employees in Hong Kong last year.

In 2023, HSBC further solidified its position as Hong Kong’s best bank under the leadership of Luanne Lim, HSBC Hong Kong’s chief executive. HSBC Group’s market profit before tax soared to $10.7 billion, representing 80% year-on-year growth and contributing 35.3% to the group’s overall pre-tax profit.

HSBC helped Singaporean companies like Next Gen Foods and Multiplier Technologies expand overseas in 2023. It also scaled up its support for local businesses expansion in the region by introducing a $1 billion ASEAN (Association of southeast Asian Nations) growth fund for digital platform businesses and a $150 million venture debt offering aimed at scaling high growth companies.

OCBC had a busy 2023, launching new FX features, application programming interface (API) integration and improvements to its online platform.

OCBC NISP proved an invaluable partner to its small and medium-sized enterprise clients in Indonesia throughout 2023 with the launch of its Nyala Bisnis 2.0 platform and initiatives to empower women-owned SMEs.

Benefiting from robust economic growth in the country, Uzbekistan’s banking sector continued its rapid expansion last year and one bank led the pack, SQB, the country’s second largest lender.

New Zealand’s high interest rate cycle has significantly impacted borrowing demand and funding costs, marking the end of an era of record profits for banks. Despite these challenges, ASB Bank, owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has demonstrated resilience during the awards period and is New Zealand’s best bank.

Commerzbank has seen a remarkable bounce back in its profitability and share price over the past four years, something that was particularly apparent in 2023. The year began with its re-inclusion in the DAX in February, five years after it was ejected from the index of German blue-chip stocks. This was thanks to a dramatic recovery in its share price from the depths it hit during the early Covid-19 period.

Kasikornbank (KBank) receives the award for Thailand’s best bank in in recognition of its commitment to enhancing asset quality in a challenging market and its dedication to sustainability initiatives.

As India’s second-largest private bank, ICICI Bank has once again demonstrated its ability to outperform its peers. While its formidable competitor, HDFC Bank, has a significant acquisition to digest, ICICI Bank has seized the opportunity to catch up in valuation and surpass market expectations, making it India’s best bank this year.

Tourism is central to the economy of the Bahamas and the country continued to recover from the pandemic-enforced lockdowns with strong GDP growth of more than 4% in 2023. Scotiabank’s business in the country similarly continues to improve from the Covid years and, in 2023, the bank achieved its highest profitability for 15 years with net income of $70.3 million, up by almost 46% year on year. The bank’s management attributes this to a range of initiatives executed in previous years, such as the branch network optimization strategy and revenue enhancement strategies to progressively lower operating costs and boost revenues.

BNP Paribas has enviable sustainable finance credentials globally, but Latin America has become a particular area of strength for the French bank. In 2023, it led on some truly landmark transactions for clients throughout the region and can claim to be leading the evolution of sustainable finance in Latin America.

Goldman is transforming its provision of research and insights to make it much easier for investors to form trade ideas.

The bank’s chief executive has led from the front to create an institution that is more diverse and better reflects the society in which it works.

The Belgian government’s retail bond programme last year, which pressured lenders to raise deposits, was just one element of a relatively tough environment for banks in Belgium. The country also sits at the opposite end of the spectrum to southern Europe in terms of the proportion of loans on floating-rate deals, meaning local banks benefit less from higher eurozone interest rates.

The bank says it is succeeding with Open Account Automation, the first module of a long-term initiative to digitize trade finance through new platform CashPro Supply Chain Solutions.

Like in the neighbouring Czech Republic, foreign groups own all five of Slovakia’s top five banks. And like in the Czech Republic and elsewhere, higher interest rates have brought higher profits – and new taxes on banks, in Slovakia’s case following the formation of a new government in October last year.

Peruvian banks had a difficult time in 2023, with zero GDP growth and a material contraction in domestic demand. However, inflation did begin to subside during the second half of the year, which led the central bank to reduce the reference interest rate for Peruvian soles by 100 basis points, ending the year at 6.25%. This reduction had a mixed impact for banks, lowering the average net interest margin but improving the country’s economic outlook.

The fourth-biggest bank in Portugal, which has been fully owned by Spain’s CaixaBank since the end of 2018, saw an exceptional performance in 2023. After record results for the firm across the board, Banco BPI is clear winner of the award for Portugal’s best bank.

Bank of Kigali is again Euromoney’s best bank in Rwanda this year.

Afghanistan International Bank (AIB) has once again proven its resilience and adaptability in the midst of severe economic challenges, demonstrating its crucial role as a financial lifeline connecting the country with the world.

El Salvador’s economy is performing poorly considering that its president Nayib Bukele recently won a landslide presidential election. His popularity belies an economy that has been blighted by high inflation, rising poverty and low growth.

Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest bank by assets, achieved a record net profit of $3.6 billion in 2023, an impressive 34% year on year rise – the highest in the industry and significantly outpacing the other four tier-one banks. Led by president director Darmawan Junaidi, it retains the award for Indonesia’s best bank.

The winds of change are coming to the Mexican banking system. Nubank’s arrival and its 15% interest-paying deposit account are certain to bring new competitive challenges to the established banks. As the biggest and best bank in the country, BBVA theoretically has the most to lose, but its continued excellence across banking segments means that it is the best prepared for any disruption to come.

Focusing on its core strengths has helped Deutsche Bank serve corporate clients amid intense geopolitical, technological and environmental challenges.

Western Europe is the most competitive region in the world for investment banking. The big five US firms, with the ambition and capability to claim global leadership, all lead transactions for the continent’s biggest companies as well as for US and Asian multinationals acquiring and raising capital in Europe.

For the second year in a row, Standard Bank walks away with the award for the best bank in Africa. And for good reason.

In tough markets, changes in banks’ market share can be particularly telling. Mergers and acquisitions had another down year in 2023, with total volume falling to $3.13 trillion, from $4.3 trillion in 2022, when rates first started rising, and $5.7 trillion in the post-Covid boom of 2021.

For its mix of sustainable finance structuring expertise and innovation in retail banking, ING wins the award this year.

Led by its head of wealth and investment Jacques Els, Standard Bank Wealth & Investment is a private-banking powerhouse in Africa.

Under the leadership of president Khairussaleh Ramli, Maybank has exceeded the broader industry performance and achieved several milestones this year, for which it receives the award for Malaysia’s best bank. With total assets exceeding RM1 trillion ($212 billion) and a remarkable 17.5% rise in net profit to RM9.35 billion in 2023, the bank has grown while delivering record dividend payouts. Profit before tax was up 5.6% and return on equity rose to 10.8% from 9.6% in the previous year.

A spike in Armenian bank M&A this year has underscored the growth opportunity for banks in the local market. The country’s best bank, Ameriabank, was bought by Bank of Georgia earlier this year, and Ardshinbank is in the process of acquiring HSBC Armenia.

It is not enough to have the data, banks also need to bring intelligence and financial analysis to bear in sustainable finance to keep progressing.

Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) had another good year in 2023 and is again the best bank in the country for the review period.

CTBC Bank has cemented its position in Taiwan’s best bank over the past year. Driven by its dual track digital innovation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) based transformation, the bank achieved a record net profit of NT$41.3 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2023, with a cost-to-income ratio of 55.16% and a return on equity of 11.9%, the highest among its peers. Revenue and pre-tax profit grew by 16% and 12%, respectively.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has solidified its standing as Australia’s best bank, driven not only by robust financial performance but also by its disciplined approach to margin management. Under the stewardship of chief executive Matt Comyn, the bank has strategically opted not to compete for less profitable mortgage customers to focus on delivering sustainable returns.

As balance sheet pressures have intensified, Morgan Stanley has been at the forefront of a changing financial sector landscape.

Life for small and medium-sized enterprises is rarely comfortable. Even when your business is faring well, the capricious nature of policymakers and markets can upend carefully laid plans.

The awards period marked a triumphant return to performance for Allied Irish Banks (AIB), Ireland’s best bank. Putting behind it its involvement in the years-long industry-wide tracker mortgage scandal in Ireland, for which it was fined €100 million in 2022, the bank posted a very strong recovery in 2023, with record profits that nearly tripled versus the previous year. Revenues rose 62%, driven by net interest income that was up more than 80%.

In each of equity and debt capital markets, syndicated loans and M&A advisory, Truist Securities ranked higher than its super-regional peers in 2023, according to Dealogic. For its consistency and the progress it has made since the merger of SunTrust and BB&T that created the firm at the end of 2019, Truist wins the award for the US’s best super-regional investment bank this year.

Nothing shows BBVA’s ability to harness what was once viewed as a disparate set of national banks around Latin America into a cohesive, integrated banking institution better than the success of its transaction services business.

If there was ever a time that demonstrated JPMorgan’s credentials as the country’s best bank, it was the crisis in March and April 2023 when US regional banks suddenly faced a balance sheet reckoning triggered by the rapid change in interest rates.

Transaction banking clients faced many challenges in 2023, mostly as a result of the rapidly shifting interest rate environment. That made it vital to have a banking partner that could supply reliable advice on liquidity management.

After years of political upheaval and economic crisis, Sri Lanka showed signs of stabilization in the second half of 2023. Despite the challenging landscape, Hatton National Bank (HNB) achieved record growth in the review period and cemented its position as Sri Lanka’s best bank.

Established in 1947 as Pakistan’s first commercial bank, HBL has consistently been at the forefront of the banking industry’s evolution. Last year, it solidified its position as a trailblazer, delivering impressive financial results while demonstrating its commitment to innovation. In recognition of this it receives the award for Pakistan’s best bank.

While political protests in Tbilisi introduced some additional risk to the Georgian economy last year, economic growth remained robust thanks to strong domestic demand and capital inflows from tourism and exports.

MUFG, Japan’s largest bank, had an excellent financial year in the 12 months to March 2024, setting new records for the group.

The economies of central America have been growing rapidly since the end of the pandemic. Some of this is the natural rebound of economic activity among countries that have outsized tourist sectors; and increased spending in this sector is one of the leading themes of the past couple of years.

Societe Generale Côte d’Ivoire is again named the best bank in the country after a year in which profit before tax was up 32% at CFEFr120 billion ($42 million) from CFEFr91 billion in 2022. The bank has shown strong commitment to the Ivory Coast despite exiting other African markets such as the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania and Chad. Indeed, Societe Generale deputy CEO of the group Pierre Palmieri visited Abidjan last year to reinforce this.

Some analysts were quick to call it the deal of the century. The first takeover of a global systemically important bank that repeated management errors and regulatory failure had brought to the brink of collapse was a rescue by its domestic rival. It was a humiliation for Switzerland that, with customers pulling their money in vast quantities over several months, Credit Suisse was left to carry on to the very brink of insolvency.

Singapore’s big lenders tend to dominate banking for small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia, and this year is no exception, with UOB beating its domestic rivals to this award.

There is so much to like about Sampath Bank’s approach to corporate responsibility. The Sri Lankan bank spent Rs91.3 million ($300,000) on all corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in 2023. That is small compared to the sums lavished on the space by bigger lenders. Yet the bank, which allocates 1% of net profit to projects that further environmental and social sustainability, manages to squeeze so much out of what it has to give.

The bank has become a global payments powerhouse, delivering innovation and outperformance.

Romania was the place of perhaps the most important bank M&A deal to be announced in 2023: the merger of the local units of Italian group UniCredit and Greece’s Alpha Bank. The deal promised to allow UniCredit, as the owner of 90% of the merged entity, to supplant Societe Generale-owned BRD as the country’s third-biggest bank.

First National Bank of Botswana delivered significant improvements in financial performance last year and made good progress in digital transformation, customer retention and social responsibility.

Banco Angolano de Investimentos (BAI) posted impressive financial results for 2023. Profit before tax stood at AKz220 billion ($250 million), almost double its 2022 result (AKz115 billion), and the bank achieved a return on equity of 36%, up from 26% the year before.

Techcombank further solidified its leadership in Vietnam’s banking sector in 2023. This has been driven by its five-year transformation journey focusing on investments in digital, data and talent under chief executive Jens Lottner, who took the helm in 2020.

By far the biggest bank by assets in the country and boasting nine million account holders, ING is also the best bank in the Netherlands this year.

For HSBC, 2023 was an important year at its UK ring-fenced bank. This delivered its strongest set of results since it was created in 2018, with revenue coming in 36% higher than in 2022. That was in part thanks to higher rates and fat net interest margins, but also to key strategic decisions, such as to make growing market share in mortgages a priority.

Awash Bank greatly expanded its digital solutions last year, achieving high levels of engagement across mobile and internet banking.

Equity Bank Kenya claims its mission is to empower clients and stakeholders, both socially and economically.

Techcombank further solidified its leadership in Vietnam’s banking sector in 2023. This has been driven by its five-year transformation journey focusing on investments in digital, data and talent under chief executive Jens Lottner, who took the helm in 2020.

Attijariwafa Bank remains the bank to beat in Morocco. In a year that saw profits grow 20% to Dh13.8 billion ($1.4 billion), it has focused its efforts on promoting private investment in the country.

Some capital markets franchises make their name for sheer volume, topping the deal rankings by simply being everywhere. Others take a different tack, picking spots where they know they excel and then doing so. For yet again being on some of the most challenging and intellectually demanding deals in the review period, Morgan Stanley is North America’s best bank for financing.

Barclays wins the award as the UK’s best investment bank. Even though some investors had to wait for the bank’s investor day in February 2024 to hear it once again reaffirm its commitment to the investment bank, staff in the UK had no doubt of this.

First Bank of Nigeria (FirstBank) wins the best bank for corporates award this year for its investment in digital, support of sustainability and the financial performance it has delivered.

Bank SinoPac has long focused on initiatives to promote responsible and inclusive finance, primarily by channelling loans to small businesses. The total outstanding of such lending to small and medium-sized enterprises was NT$325 billion ($10 billion) at the end of 2023.

In investment banking, the biggest event of the year was the €2 billion IPO of Hidroelectrica in Romania, Europe’s biggest IPO in 2023. This was Romania’s largest-ever IPO and played a role in reopening the market across the continent, thanks to a strong performance in the secondary market. It also helped reawaken the international capital market to the opportunities in central and eastern Europe.

For the second year in a row, HSBC walks away with the award for Asia’s best bank – and deservedly so. Outgoing chief executive Noel Quinn’s decisive move in early 2020 to pivot to Asia by redeploying $100 billion in risk-weighted assets has delivered, generating strong new income streams and squeezing more gains from key product lines such as wealth management and transaction banking.

As in so many other areas of the bank’s franchise, JPMorgan’s wealth management performance in 2023 was a good illustration of the unique qualities of the US’s preeminent banking institution. It is North America’s best bank for wealth management.

Market doubts, three years ago, about whether Andrea Orcel’s management of UniCredit would be sufficiently orientated to shareholder value have proven to be far from the mark. Orcel might have shied away from a deal with the Italian government to buy Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena in 2021, but this has not prevented UniCredit from remaining a large and growing part of the European banking story.

After being knocked back by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kazakhstan’s economy rebounded last year, notching up over 5% growth on strong levels of consumer and public spending.

The fourth-biggest bank in Portugal, which has been fully owned by Spain’s CaixaBank since the end of 2018, saw an exceptional performance in 2023. After record results for the firm across the board, Banco BPI is clear winner of the award for Portugal’s best bank.