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Helping companies conduct their business is pretty much the nub of corporate banking. Banks can do it in myriad ways: lending money most obviously, but also helping them manage their cash and payments, and finance themselves through the capital markets.
Euromoney’s conversations during the awards process have once again shed light on the evolution of skills needed in these areas. Treating every business as if it were an advisory franchise is a common refrain – ultimately, almost everything banks do is in some way advisory. If that is not how your firm looks at it, there is something seriously wrong with your priorities.
For all businesses, but especially in areas like trade finance, an intimate knowledge of the clients’ clients is crucial. For M&A practices, knowing the enemy – for which read activist investors – and being able to provide insight into their motivation is increasingly called upon. The phenomenal speed of growth of small tech companies into global giants means that no bank can now neglect apparent minnows. And whomever you are advising, the bait and switch of a senior banker pitching and then handing over to a junior team for execution is guaranteed to leave a sour taste more than ever.
