Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2020 Western Europe winners revealed

Crédit Agricole has been named Western Europe’s best bank, in Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence for 2020. Its partnership approach to cross-border expansion in Europe put it at the forefront of regional banking-industry consolidation.

“Under Philippe Brassac – and more than any other bank – Crédit Agricole and its subsidiaries have already proved attractive partners for other European banks with capital problems or product inefficiencies,” the magazine said.

This partnership approach advanced strongly over the last year, allowing the group to further strengthen its product factories, and to boost income at a time when negative rates were crippling net interest margins in Europe. Crédit Agricole was also France’s best bank.

BNP Paribas won the best investment bank, as it demonstrated its increasing importance to capital markets across the continent, even as it stepped up its transformation plan and took a hard look at costs.

It was, in addition, the region’s best bank for financing, as it made progress in both equity and debt capital markets and continued the build-out of its sustainable finance franchise.

BNP Paribas also won best bank for corporate social responsibility, and France’s best investment bank.

“BNP Paribas’ pan-European advance is in evidence in both debt and equity capital markets, especially in Germany,” Euromoney said.

Meanwhile, Rothschild & Co won best bank for advisory, as it developed an already strong position in regional advisory with investments in its sovereign and UK mid-cap franchises, among other areas.

The best bank for transaction services was ING, for its work towards digital transaction-banking innovation, while Lloyds Banking Group took best digital bank for its group technological transformation.

The other regional winners were UBS (best bank for wealth management), HSBC (best bank for sustainable finance), and Banco Santander (best bank for SMEs). Country award winners include UniCredit-owned Hypovereinsbank (Germany’s best bank) and Deutsche Bank, which reclaimed the title of Germany’s best investment bank.

Barclays was the UK’s best bank and best investment bank.

About the Awards for Excellence

Euromoney’s Awards for Excellence are the awards that matter to the banks and bankers who matter. They were established in 1992 and were the first of their kind in the global banking industry. This year Euromoney received almost 1,000 submissions from banks in our regional and country awards programme that covers more than 50 regional awards and best bank awards in close to 100 countries. We will be receiving submissions and announcing winners in a further 25 global award categories in our September issue.

To access the results, contact Austin Ou Yang at +44 (0) 20 7779 8531 or austin.ouyang@euromoneyplc.com, or subscribe online.