Deutsche Bank
| Also shortlisted in this category: |
This year, four banks – Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital and UBS – made the shortlist for best global foreign exchange house. The level of service they deliver to their clients is staggering, from pre-trade to post-trade. They all supply liquidity and advice and are increasingly coming up with new products and complex and bespoke structured hedging solutions. It is unfortunate that there can be only one winner of this award. The level of homogeneity in pricing, especially in simple products, means that banks active in FX have to work hard to differentiate themselves. Of course, there are many similarities in the way they do business but to succeed they do have to dare to be different. This award is based on a qualitative and subjective assessment of how the four shortlisted banks have managed this.
All four banks made outstanding pitches but ultimately the award came down to a straight battle between defending champion Barclays and Deutsche. Being able to show momentum is a key criterion for this award, so RBS and UBS have every right to feel aggrieved that they did not win on this basis alone.