Awards for excellence – Spain

Best bank

BSCH

Best debt house

Morgan Stanley

Best equity house

Merrill Lynch

Best M&A house

JPMorgan

There’s not much to choose between Spain’s two banking leaders, BBVA and BSCH. They have similar market shares, similar strategies, similar market capitalizations and equally well regarded management teams. But BSCH seems to have snatched a small advantage since it completed what it calls the first merger of the euro era – between Santander and Banco Central Hispano in 1999.

It is still marginally ahead of its great local rival in terms of size measured by total assets and share of customer funds.