Awards for Excellence 2017
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| © 2017 Euromoney |
| Full results |
There is an important changing of the guard for the best bank for markets award, reflecting a rapid and big improvement. In previous years, Bank of America Merrill Lynch would have been at the periphery of a conversation on Asia-Pacific markets. Now it is front and centre. The most obvious thing BAML has going for it is diversity. Whereas the usual contenders in this category, Citi and HSBC, are heavy on forex and rates but are trying to bolster equities from a relatively low base (Morgan Stanley is the reverse), BAML is already diversified, with equities businesses accounting for 40% of global markets revenues in 2016 and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) 60%. That FICC figure is roughly equally split between emerging and developed markets. Global rates, credit and foreign exchange are all well represented.
Diversity on its own would not be enough if the bank was being dwarfed by rivals in individual categories, but that no longer seems to be the case, whether in profit (Asia-Pacific FICC pre-tax income has grown 40 times over in five years), market share or – crucially – quality of service. Our estimates put the FICC product revenue from Asia Pacific as being pretty close among HSBC, Citi and BAML, and in equities revenue BAML appears to be in a cluster behind only Morgan Stanley.
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| Rapid improvement |
Euromoney’s own FX survey tells a story. BAML now ranks second in Asia in FX, with 11.61% market share; still behind Citi, but one would probably argue FX is Citi’s strongest suit in markets, whereas for BAML it would historically have been seen as one of the weakest. BAML’s market share went up, Citi’s down. Other benchmark surveys show the bank leading in service quality. Joydeep Sengupta and Jin Su, the co-heads of Asia-Pacific FICC, have built a thriving business. On the equities side, under Olivier Thiriet, there is quantifiable improvement too. Korea and Taiwan – both important markets – are handy in that they disclose market share among foreign brokers. In year-to-date data accessed in May, BAML led in Korea and was behind only Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse in Taiwan.
There are many surveys trying to make sense of the sometimes opaque world of markets businesses, but whether Greenwich, Coalition, McLagan or our own family of research (such as Euromoney and GlobalCapital surveys) is the benchmark, the story is the same: rapid growth, profitability, service excellence and a greater range of coverage than is commonly acknowledged. It is hard to think of a swifter climb in our regional categories in recent years.
