Best bank ING Barings
ING Barings is the predominant European bank in central and eastern Europe with very visible hallmarks of its presence. Repeatedly it has established greenfield operations which rapidly develop into competent offices, offering the full range of wholesale banking services such as bond issues, syndicated loans, trade and commodity finance, payment services, trade finance through corporate lending to local treasury, to small and multinational clients alike.
ING Barings is constantly breaking new ground: it made for instance the first strategic investment with majority shareholding by a western commercial bank in an existing Polish bank and in Hungary it made a further move towards Allfinanz services through the acquisition of Duna Bank's retail business.
The bank is continuing to expand in the region with teams at most branches and offices applying for brokerage licences. They focus on equity-related instruments besides their present role as originators, underwriters and traders of debt instruments. The bank is very well positioned to win equity mandated business, and it makes a great effort to capture the business and sell it, not just in the region but throughout the network.
Best securities firm Creditanstalt
In 1996 Creditanstalt Investment Bank continued to expand into new territories Russia and Croatia while continuing to broaden its franchise in its established operation in eastern Europe.