Best bank
Santander Central Hispano
Best debt house
Citigroup
Best M&A house
Goldman Sachs
Best equities house
UBS
Best at risk management
Deutsche Bank
Best at treasury services
Santander Central Hispano
Best at cash management
Citigroup
But with its more comprehensive retail presence, Santander can boast a broad presence in every major Latin market, while Citigroup, outside Mexico at least, is essentially a corporate bank that does a very small amount of consumer banking on the side. Indeed, Citi has been scaling back its consumer operations.
Public profit figures figures also make it clear that Santander is a first-rate bank in every market in which it chooses to compete. Its return on equity figures range from 22.3% in mature Chile to 32.6% in Brazil.
Meanwhile, Citigroup Latin America seems to be in some disarray. In recent months, it has lost not only its CEO, Jorge Bermudez, but also its co-head of investment banking, José Olympio. The new Latin America CEO, Manuel Medina-Mora, will take on all of Bermudez?s responsibilities while at the same time retaining his previous position as CEO of Banamex, the Mexican franchise. And one of the first things on his plate will be an SEC investigation of Citigroup?s accounting during the Argentine financial meltdown.