Awards for Excellence
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| © 2017 Euromoney |
| Full results |
Years of cutting costs, simplifying structures, settling litigation and plugging holes in its coverage have brought one bank to the position where it is now firing on all cylinders across pretty much all of its US business portfolio. ‘Responsible growth’ is the guiding mantra for Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan, and his success in putting those words into practice is why his firm is Euromoney’s best bank in the US. Moynihan might not be the flashiest of bank chiefs, but he knows his bank and he knows what clients in its home market want from it. His focus on building up the firm’s core middle-market franchise has borne fruit – not just in increased business loans but also on coverage more broadly. He drove the creation of deeper regional structures within the US, led by ‘market presidents’ who take personal responsibility for coordinating the bank’s activities across the country.
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| Brian Moynihan |
Costs have been cut across the group with an extraordinary zeal – the fourth quarter of 2016 marked the 20th consecutive quarter of year-on-year lower operating expenses. Since hitting a peak in 2011, the bank has cut expenses by 29%. It has been a tough journey for Moynihan, a Bostonian who is not part of the North Carolina set that had traditionally run the firm. His priority when taking the top job in 2010 was to stabilize the company – partly with job cuts that continue to this day. The result is a bank that is now better placed to serve its home market than it has ever been.
In investment banking and capital markets – the businesses that sit in Global Corporate and Investment Banking under Christian Meissner – the bank is also now a top-tier franchise, having integrated Merrill Lynch, which it acquired during the financial crisis. It ranks third in M&A and equity capital markets in the region for the period under review and is top in debt capital markets.
Its strategy for banking its US corporate clients is top-notch. The bank does not try to be all things to all people: internationally it is unashamedly selective about its corporate client base. But a key plank of its strategy is its ability to leverage its multi-geography product presence to follow its US client subsidiaries wherever they choose to do business.
Underpinning its approach to corporate clients is also the bank’s focus on supporting them through their life cycle. Its thousands of smaller clients are not neglected – a fact that perhaps reflects the legacy of Moynihan’s time running consumer and small business banking. Clients are shepherded from startup to capital markets by an enviable business and commercial banking franchise that clients cannot praise enough. (The bank also wins our award for North America’s best bank for small and medium-sized enterprises.)
The bank is no slouch when it comes to adoption of new digital offerings. BofA was among the first to roll out Zelle, a new person-to-person payment solution that is being gradually incorporated by a clutch of banks into their online banking apps. Its launch in the first quarter of this year helped BofA see a 25% increase in payments sent by customers through the app, to $8 billion.
It has also worked on proprietary initiatives, including the launch this year of Merrill Edge Guided Investing, an online investment advisory platform that looks to differentiate itself from traditional robo-advisers by the close involvement in asset allocation strategy of the firm’s chief investment office.
Branch presence has not been overlooked, still critically important for the 800,000 customers who use such facilities every day. The bank may have been cutting jobs, but it has also been building new financial centres, often leveraging on an existing global banking or wealth management presence: the folk of Denver, Minneapolis and Indianapolis are the latest to benefit.
