Best bank
Banco General
Best debt house
Citigroup
Banco General is very locally focused on Panamanian banking, and does it extremely well.
It has 88% of Banistmo?s profits with only 57% of its assets. Its return on assets, at 2.25%, is truly world class.
There?s no debate about the bank that should get the award for best debt house in Panama.
Citigroup?s liability management team put together a very complex and successful deal for the sovereign, which involved issuing a $250 million 30-year global bond for cash, and then, less than a week later, reopening Panama?s 2023 20-year bond for $326 million, in exchange for $406 million in old Brady bonds.
The deal came just in time, at the end of January: after that, the emerging debt markets tanked, and no more long-term issuance came to market.