Patents are a high-profile demonstration of a bank’s commitment to innovation, but they are not the only option for those looking to encourage new ways of thinking.

This year has seen banks report markdowns on leveraged finance commitments and related exposures, something that is hardly surprising given what has happened to yields. But even with syndicates struggling to offload some high-profile big deals, the troubles seem oddly muted so far.

BofA Securities wins this year’s award for Latin America’s best bank for transaction services. The bank has been steadily building up its corporate relationships in Latin America, while its digital innovation in this business has cemented its ability to provide local services at the level of the local banks.

Best Investment Bank: BofA Securities

BofA Securities has had a busy year in which it demonstrated impressive breadth of deal-flow across countries, as well as regional leadership in two of the main product areas. Not only was the bank the best investment bank in Colombia and Peru, but it was also a close challenger for the Mexican and Brazilian awards. It is this unmatched geographical balance that makes BofA the region’s leading investment bank.

Best Investment Bank: BofA Securities

In a year in which businesses were emerging from the coronavirus pandemic with a strong demand for capital to finance expansion in real estate, manufacturing equipment and distribution facilities, Bank of America was able to offer unmatched support.

Bank of America is thriving. In its home market, it has led the way in retail banking with a distinctive preferred rewards programme that offers retail customers preferential rates across a full range of products from credit cards to mortgages.

Bank of America is everywhere in the US. It serves one in five mid-sized corporates (those with revenues of between $5 million and $2 billion) and you can’t do that from one national headquarters.

Sustainable finance is now at the top of many global banks’ agendas, but it has been there at Bank of America for a very long time already. The bank is committed to deploying $1 trillion towards zero-carbon investments by 2030, but Steve Boland, chief administrative officer, believes this initiative shouldn’t overshadow the bank’s long held belief in pursuing a sustainable growth strategy in relation to its broader corporate responsibilities. It is the continued success of this strategy that makes BofA North America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.

Under the leadership of Brian Moynihan, Bank of America has become the poster child for stakeholder capitalism in banking. Shareholders benefit; previous strong underwriting and ample liquidity enabled it to grow loans strongly in the pandemic recovery; and management is confident it can weather the coming downturn.

Unbeatable data drives everything behind CashPro, and the platform drives payments and treasury at Bank of America in turn.

Aggregate investment banking and markets revenues fell 12% at the big five US investment banks in the first quarter of 2022. Their chief executives were confident that dealflow will return, but were also united in their uncertainty over how central bank responses to inflation will play out in markets.

Chief executive Brian Moynihan will be hoping that a management reshuffle has set the bank on track to finally make good on the promise of its sprawling reach.

Bank of America’s global and Asia-Pacific heads of receivables tell Euromoney how their artificial intelligence-powered intelligent receivables service has slashed client-matching error rates.

Bank of America’s Abyd Karmali is on the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. He spoke to Euromoney ahead of the nature-based COP15 and climate-based COP26 conferences about what is at stake.

The only way banks can fully embrace the blockchain technology now transforming finance is by dealing in cryptos.

Bank of America’s integrated and pioneering approach to corporate responsibility has paid off again this year.

Technology keeps BofA at the vanguard of payments. Covid-19 drove both deposits and innovation at the US bank.

The US bank has launched the next generation of its global virtual account management solution to clients in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Bank of America struck a disjointed tone in its announcement that chief operating officer Tom Montag and vice chair Anne Finucane are to retire at the end of the year.

A tough-minded, independent thinker revered by many and disliked by some, Thomas Montag has been a dominant figure that will be hard to replace.

The big six US banks are releasing the loan loss reserves they built up in the pandemic. Where might this end? The answer could be surprising.

For small and medium-sized enterprises the year of Covid presented the same challenges as it did to their bigger corporate cousins, only the scale was different. Sometimes they needed help to survive; at other times they need help to thrive.

This year BofA Securities, led by Augusto Urmeneta, head of investment banking in Latin America, topped the equity capital markets volume and fee tables across the region, as well as being first in fees and second in terms of volume for M&A.

In February 2020 BofA Securities reorganized its corporate and investment banking teams in Latin America, with Augusto Urmeneta becoming head of corporate and investment banking. At that time Hans Lin, head of Brazil investment banking – a key market for the bank and one in which it has excelled – joined the bank’s global private capital council. Meanwhile Bruno Saraiva was named co-head of Brazil investment banking alongside Lin, who remains in charge of the ECM team.

In a year when traditional ways of managing corporate cash flows, trade and retail payments faced their biggest challenge yet, one bank continued its relentless investment, building upon years of success. Bank of America once again wins the award for North America’s best bank for transaction services.

Nearly all banks talk about corporate responsibility, few make it integral to the way they work. What sets Bank of America apart is that it has been doing just that for years and this year it receives the award for North America’s best bank for corporate responsibility.

Black-owned broker-dealers have largely been excluded from the mainstream of corporate debt and equity capital raising. The bulge-bracket banks are now working to correct this, inviting firms owned and staffed by racial minorities, women and veterans to lead their own deals and showcase their capabilities to corporate clients.

It has the backing of Prince Charles, as well as several big names in banking – but will the Financial Services Taskforce contribute anything new to the fight against climate change?