It was quickly obvious that, after the financial crisis, the number of truly global banks would decline. It has. You can now count them on the fingers of one hand. That trend has had a notable impact in developing markets, where international banks had previously taken the lead role in providing cross-border finance.
Until about a decade ago, most banks headquartered in the emerging markets remained decidedly domestic. The question has always been: could regional banks develop to become the most important players on their continents?
In 2019, the year of Euromoney’s 50th anniversary, we might just have reached the tipping point where this has come to pass.
The evidence is there to see in the results of our Awards for Excellence 2019. Take the regional awards in the emerging markets this year. This is the field in which local banks compete with the bigger, international players head on. Traditionally, they have lost.