ABN Amro may not have even close to the global market share that it would like, but it takes the award for most improved debt house for the progress it has made in the European bond markets over the past year.
It has sustained its strong position in European asset-backed issuance in 2003 as it did in 2002, particularly in euros, but it is in the vanilla debt markets that the most significant progress has been made. In May 2003, year on year, the Dutch bank was the second-largest bookrunner of euro-denominated debt by volume, up from sixth place last year. For European issuers in general, the bank came fourth over the same period, compared with eighth last year.
Piero Overmars, ABN Amro's global head of financial markets, says this is a result of a focused effort to build up the debt business for a couple of years. Since the beginning of this year, he says, the creation of the financial markets business, integrating the loan business, debt capital markets and trading, structured credit, forex, rates and portfolio management, has particularly helped win market share.
"It was one of the key steps that we have taken.