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| Best Emerging markets investment bank: HSBC |
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| Also shortlisted: Citi, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered |
HSBC’s investment banking model is often misunderstood. Its fixed-income, currencies and commodities business is not in the same league, in revenue terms, as such rivals as JPMorgan, Citi or Deutsche Bank; its global equities business lacks scale; and it has never actively coveted a top-tier position in emerging market M&A and ECM across all regions.
In short, HSBC has never sought to build a conventional top-tier global investment bank. However, this strategy is deliberate. HSBC’s raison d’être is financing-led, focused on intermediating growing emerging market-focused trade flows and catering to rising corporate demand for sophisticated products and capital market solutions.
With conventional top-tier global investment banks grappling with the challenge of generating the revenue scale needed to achieve return on equity targets amid market and regulatory pressures, HSBC’s alternative and corporate-focused business model deserves credit. It has strategically beefed up its wholesale banking operation – transaction banking and custody services – to leverage client relationships, cross-sell investment banking products and to ensure emerging market-focused corporates invest in the HSBC brand at an early stage.