Best bank
Banque Générale du Luxembourg
Luxembourg does not produce enough meaningful capital markets business to warrant product awards.
In bonds, the only regular issuer is the Banque et Caisse d?Epargne de l?Etat Luxembourg, which uses a range of banks to raise funds in different currencies. In equities, there was just a handful of new issues last year.
But in areas such as domestic retail banking, there is a good deal of competition between Banque Générale du Luxembourg, which is owned by Fortis, and Dexia Banque Internationale Luxembourg, which, as the name suggests, is owned by Dexia. Both are working hard to cut costs to compete in a low-rate environment.
Both offer retail banking, private banking, funds investment, and business banking. But they are experiencing different fortunes. Dexia BIL?s customer loans and advances shrank by over 17% between 2002 and 2003, contributing to a drop in profit of nearly 23% at e258 million. Over the same period, net profits at BGL rose by nearly 40% to e468.7 million.