Poll of Polls: Overall results
The likes of SBC Warburg Dillon Read, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Salomon Smith Barney may be disappointed in this year’s poll of polls. Their performance is not much better than in past years, despite their headline mergers. The acquisition of BZW’s equity and M&A interests from Barclays has hardly improved Credit Suisse First Boston’s scores either. Instead, the banks to watch include Commerzbank, Paribas and ABN Amro, a steady climber in most of the surveys we published in 1997.
Most significant changes in this year’s poll of polls take place below the top 10 banks. In the overall ranking, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson rises to 16 from 21, almost regaining its 1995 position (14), thanks to higher scores for trading and advising. Bankers Trust Alex Brown (22) does reap the benefits of its recent merger, rising from 47 and 77 respectively, and achieving high results in categories where the two banks previously scored zero.
The highest climber of all, however, is Commerzbank, which leaps 30 places to 23. Much of its success is due to improved underwriting and trading performance in bonds and also derivatives, through former subsidiary Commerz Financial Products, which is now a fully integrated part of the parent’s global debt markets division.
Forty per cent of the main table is made up of underwriting totals for overall capital raising, bonds, MTNs, Eurocommercial paper and international equities. Credito Italiano is the surprise of this ranking, up 45 places to 11. It earns all its points for bond syndication, having lead-managed $5.5 billion in lira Eurobonds last year. Istituto Mobiliare Italiano (17) and Banca Commerciale Italiana (25) add to the Italian flavour of the table.
French banks fare well too: Banque Paribas is up to 15 from 22 and Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) reaches 24 from 36. Both banks score highly at bond underwriting, where they are leading names in lira as well as French franc issuance. Their equity scores are much better than before too, in keeping with progress in the league tables. In 1996, Paribas was placed 14th and BNP didn’t even make the top 50, whereas in 1997 their positions are 10th and 13th respectively.
On the trading side, which makes up 37.5% of the overall ranking, Union Bank of Switzerland makes headway. It rises five places to seven, thanks to its success at equity and government bond trading. NatWest also rises, owing its improvement to foreign exchange, with the second highest score after Citibank. Morgan Stanley’s merger with Dean Witter last February hasn’t brought stunning results. Its trading total falls from 137.73 to 114.35 owing to poorer figures in almost every section. Chase falls from fifth place to 12 with a much lower score for foreign exchange. Euromoney‘s survey of foreign exchange (May 1997 issue), showed that the bank’s estimated share of the market has fallen from 9.04% in the previous year to just 4.65%.
Chase also loses ground in the advisory ranking, falling to 10 from six. It makes way for Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, which jumps to seven from 17, after a good year for research and risk management. Advice on privatizations and economic research also boosts Dresdner Kleinwort Benson’s position (14). Once again, newly merged Bankers Trust Alex Brown leaps forward to 21 after separate scores of 37 and 39 in last year’s ranking.
