Best bank - Banca Totta & Açores
Best debt house - Goldman Sachs
Best equity house - Merrill Lynch
Best domestic securities firm - BCP Investimento
Best M&A house - Banco Espírito Santo de Investimento
Best local partner - Finantia
Despite such apparently hair-raising schemes as giving away a free car with every mortgage, Banca Totta & Açores continues to go from strength to strength. While its rivals are suffering - Banca Comercial Português had to resort to a rights issue earlier this year - Totta's business is growing rapidly, earning it this year's award for best bank in Portugal. Its return on equity is around 19% - the highest of any Portuguese bank - and its cost-income ratio is just over 45%. Its investment bank makes a small profit, mainly in structured finance, and the bank serves as a distribution platform for bonds originated by its parent, Santander Central Hispano. It has a respectable-sized custody business that ranks fourth domestically in terms of turnover and manages around e4 billion of assets in mutual funds.
Goldman Sachs has done most of what little business there has been in the Portuguese debt markets this year.