Global Finance presents its 31st annual list of best banks worldwide.
Banks face an uphill battle as supply chains remain disrupted, regional conflicts continue to build, and the fear of bank failure returns. Despite this, select financial institutions have threaded the needle and delivered stellar performances to their clients and shareholders over the past year.
JPMorgan Chase takes the top honor as Global Finance’s World’s Best Bank for 2024, as well as the World’s Best Investment Bank and World’s Best Private Bank. The global giant won its laurels thanks to a broad range of client offerings and solid financials while helping to arrest a series of US bank failures with its acquisition of First Republic Bank. Industry leadership, advancements in digitalization and corporate citizenship also factored in.
Throughout 2023, JPMorgan Chase raised $2.3 trillion in extended credit and new capital for its consumer and institutional clients while moving $10 trillion in over 120 currencies daily. For its 6.4 million small-business clients, the bank broadened its suite of payment acceptance offerings, including invoicing and a tap-to-pay option allowing merchants to accept card payments via their mobile devices.
A Rocky Road
The world dodged a global recession in 2023 as global output growth shrank to 3.3% from 3.5% in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund’s July World Economic Outlook 2024. Advanced economies, the Middle East and Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa suffered dips in growth ranging from 0.9% to 3.4%. Only the emerging and developing economies in Europe and Asia experienced growth, their respective outputs growing by 2% and 0.3%. However, after 12 months of monetary tightening, the global economy is projected to grow 3.2% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025 as long as inflation remains in check, according to the report’s authors.
The high-profile failure in March 2023 of the regional Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which relied heavily on uninsured deposits, had many banks checking the models they use to determine asset correlations to which they might be exposed. SVB’s collapse quickly spread to Signature Bank and First Republic Bank, which shared similar characteristics, leading to the second-, third- and fourth-largest bank failures in US history.
The banks “failed as a result of a combination of unrealized interest rate losses from their long-term, fixed-rate assets and the loss of the low-rate deposits that had funded these assets,” Larry Wall, research center executive director of the Atlanta Fed’s Center for Financial Innovation and Stability, explained in a blog post. “Longtime observers of the financial system will see a parallel with the 1980s thrift debacle, in which approximately 1,300 savings and loans and savings banks failed, due in large part to their exposure to interest rate risk and their loss of the low-rate deposits that had been used to fund these assets.”
This time, the failures disproportionally affected the venture capital-backed tech startup sector that these banks catered to. In a letter to UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, the leaders of 180 tech companies said, “The loss of deposits has the potential to cripple the sector and send the ecosystem back 20 years.
The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s quick response to the banks’ failures stemmed additional contagion and has left businesses with an object lesson in concentration risk.
Along with the World’s Best Bank, global honors this year include awards for Best Corporate Bank, Best Consumer Bank, Best Banks Worldwide in Emerging and Frontier Markets and Best Sub-Custodian Bank. All are being announced here for the first time. Previously announced honors include Best Global Transaction Bank, Best Bank for Sustainable Finance, Best Islamic Financial Institution, Best Investment Bank, Best Cash Management Bank, Best Trade-Finance providers, Best Supply Chain Finance providers, Best Foreign Exchange Provider, Best Private Bank, and Best SME Bank. —Robert Daly
Methodology
The editors of Global Finance, with input from industry analysts, corporate executives and technology experts, selected the global winners for the World’s Best Banks 2024 using information provided by entrants as well as independent research based on objective and subjective factors.
Entries are not required, but experience shows that the information supplied in an entry can increase the chance of success. In many cases, entrants present details that may not be readily available to the editors.
Judges considered performance from January 1 to December 31, 2023. Global Finance applies a proprietary algorithm to shorten the list of contenders and arrive at a numerical score, with 100 signifying perfection. The algorithm weights a range of criteria for relative importance, including knowledge of the sector, market conditions and customer needs, financial strength and safety, strategic relationships and governance, capital investment and innovation, scope of global coverage, size and experience of staff, risk management, range of products and services and use of technology. The panel tends to favor private-sector banks over government-owned institutions.
The winners are those banks and providers that best serve the specialized needs of corporations engaged in global business.
| World’s Best Banks – Global Winners | |
|---|---|
| World’s Best Bank | JPMorgan Chase |
| World’s Best Corporate Bank | BBVA |
| World’s Best Consumer Bank | Standard Chartered |
| World’s Best Emerging Markets Bank | QNB |
| World’s Best Frontier Markets Bank | UBA |
| World’s Best Sub-custodian Bank | CIBC Mellon |
| World’s Best Transaction Bank | Bank of America |
| World’s Best Bank for Sustainable Finance | Societe Generale |
| World’s Best Islamic Financial Institution | Kuwait Finance House |
| World’s Best Investment Bank | J.P. Morgan |
| World’s Best Cash Management Bank | Citi |
| World’s Beast Trade Finance Provider | BNY Mellon |
| World’s Best Supply Chain Finance Provider | Citi |
| World’s Best Foreign Exchange Provider | UBS |
| World’s Best Private Bank | J.P. Morgan Private Bank |
| World’s Best SME Bank | BTG Pactual Empresas |
World’s Best Bank: JPMorgan Chase
In 2023, JPMorgan Chase not only managed to grow its business lines, maintain its fortress balance sheet and continue innovating, but also helped stabilize the US financial system. After last year’s collapse of First Republic Bank, the second-largest bank failure in US history, which followed the high-profile failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, JPMorgan stepped in to acquire a substantial majority of First Republic’s assets for $10.6 billion. The transaction netted JPMorgan approximately $173 billion in loans, $92 billion in deposits, and $30 billion in securities.
Outside that acquisition, the bank generated a net income of roughly $49.6 billion, up about 32% year-on-year, from revenue of approximately $158.1 billion, with solid performances from most business lines. Corporate & Investment Bank, rebranded as Commercial and Investment Bank in January 2024, contributed a net income of $14 billion from $49 billion in revenue. Its Consumer & Community Banking business added a substantial amount of retail branches and advisers and leads the First Republic integration. The Commercial Banking business more than doubled its new client relationships, while the Asset & Wealth Management business increased client assets under management to $5 trillion from $4 trillion the previous year.
JPMorgan also invested significantly in artificial intelligence and machine learning, identifying 400 instances where the technology can improve fraud detection. The bank also minted a Chief Data & Analytics Office,r who has a seat on its Operating Committee and approved adding four new data centers to its existing 32 facilities. Furthermore, the bank has increased its adoption of cloud computing by having 70% of its applications in the cloud, up from 50% in 2022, and 75% of its data stored in the cloud, up from 70% the previous year. —Robert Daly
Chairman & CEO — Jamie Dimon
World’s Best Corporate Bank: BBVA
Despite the global economy dealing with rising inflation, trade conflicts and bank failures, BBVA returned as the World’s Best Corporate Bank award winner for a second year. The bank’s Corporate and Business Banking (CBB) unit contributed €2.25 billion ($2.48 billion) in net attributable profit, a 44.5% year-on-year increase. Geographically, its operations in Mexico and Turkey contributed the most (29% each), while its operations in Spain, South America and the rest of the business contributed 15%, 13% and 15%, respectively. Driving the growth was a 16% increase in net fees and commissions across all businesses.
CBB also saw its cross-border business grow by more than 30% in 2023, fueled by nearshoring operations in Mexico, the US and Asia. The cross-border activity represented over 35% of CBB’s activity for the year.
Wholesale banking cannot be discussed without mentioning sustainability, as the two are tightly intertwined at BBVA. The bank is known for developing inaugural and subsequent green and social bonds for the European and Latin American markets. However, BBVA has expanded its sustainable offerings and created a global unit providing financing for clean technology like hydrogen and biofuels, energy storage, mobility, and carbon-capture technologies; advisory services that evaluate and classify suppliers based on sustainable criteria and the staff’s specialized expertise; and consultation tools like carbon footprint calculators. —RD
Global Head of Sustainability and Corporate & Investment Banking — Javier Rodríguez Soler
World’s Best Consumer Bank: Standard Chartered
Investing in high-growth banking sectors like consumer banking and taking a digital-first approach has paid off handsomely for Standard Chartered, the year’s winner of the World’s Best Consumer Bank award.
The bank’s Consumer, Private & Business Banking unit contributed $2.49 billion in pre-tax underlying profit while increasing its mass retail client base to 9.5 million clients, a million more than the previous year. At the same time, retail product income increased by 26%, and deposit income grew by 74%.
The bank’s digital strategy enables it to provide more personalized, relevant, real-time product offerings and sharpens its onboarding and engagement capabilities. As a result, the percentage of digital sales grew to 56%, up 8% from the previous year.
The bank continues working internally to grow its mass retailbusiness by scaling sustainability through partnerships, digital client engagements and automation. Standard Chartered has eight such mass retail partnerships in production across China, Indonesia and Singapore that serve more than 2.6 million clients. One such partnership is with Singapore’s all-digital Trust Bank, backed by Standard Chartered and grocery retailer FairPrice Group. Since its founding in September 2022, Trust Bank has grown to become the fourth-largest retail bank in the city-state, with a 12% market share, 700,000 clients, and $1.4 billion in deposits. —RD
CEO, Wealth and Retail Banking — Judy Hsu
World’s Best Emerging Markets Bank: QNB
Qatar National Bank (QNB) won the World’s Best Emerging Markets Bank award for its growth, digitalization efforts and expansion in emerging markets. In 2023, the bank grew its net profit by 8% to 15.5 billion Qatari riyals ($4.25 billion) while increasing its deposits by 2% to 857 billion riyals and loans by 853 billion riyals.
The bank, which operates in 28 countries on three continents, has taken a cross-pollination approach to digitalization by leveraging intellectual property and technology developed throughout its organization. A prime example is QNB’s digital bank, Enpara. Founded in Turkey in 2012 and recently gaining approval to become a deposit bank, it caters to small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) and retail clients. The experience in delivering products such as deposits, accounts, cards, facilities, transfers and payments helped develop and launch QNB Bebasata digital bank in Egypt, a subsidiary of QNB Alahli, in March 2023. Since going live, the new digital bank ended the year with 20,000 clients.
QNB is also awaiting approval from Saudi bank regulators to launch a digital-only bank in partnership with Ajlan & Bros Holding, targeting SME and consumer clientele. Meanwhile, the bank expanded its presence in Saudi Arabia by opening its second branch in Jeddah. It opened its first branch in the capital, Riyadh, in 2017.
Aside from technology, QNB aims to attract new deposits and grow its wealth management business in its Indonesian operations by offering new products, such as mutual funds, bancassurance and government bonds, which are offered in other markets under the QNB First luxury brand. —RD
Group CEO — Abdulla Mubarak Al-Khalifa
World’s Best Frontier Markets Bank: United Bank for Africa
Serving over 25 million corporate, commercial and consumer clients across 20 sub-Saharan countries, United Bank for Africa (UBA) has won the World’s Best Frontier Markets award for its service and performance in some of the fastest-growing markets worldwide.
Through its prudent lending approach, robust risk management, and geographic diversification, the bank nearly doubled its deposits to 17.36 trillion Nigerian naira ($10.82 billion) in 2023 from 8.99 trillion naira in 2022. Over the same period, it grew its loan book by 61% to 5.55 trillion naira. As a result, its pre-tax profits rose 277.2% to 757.7 billion naira.
UBA provides micro, small and midsize enterprise financing to approximately 32,000 SME clients, a 45% increase from the previous year. It also provides access to more than 1,000 branches, a network of 2,676 ATMs and roughly 300,000 point-of-sale machines.
To spur regional growth, the bank has pledged up to $6 billion in financing in partnership with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) over the next three years to empower SMEs across the continent. It was also one of six African banks that signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pan-African Payment Settlement System (PAPSS) to further growth in trade.
UBA has also implemented “smart automation,” such as robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, to reduce costs, improve productivity and minimize errors. Several more examples are in development. —RD
Group Managing Director/CEO — Oliver Alawuba
World’s Best Sub-Custodian Bank: CIBC Mellon
With deep resources and outstanding post-trade capabilities, CIBC Mellon is again recognized as the Best Sub-Custodian Bank award winner. In addition to custody, CIBC Mellon’s investment-servicing solutions also provide clients with multicurrency accounting, fund administration, recordkeeping, pension services, securities-lending services, foreign exchange settlement, and treasury services. Scale and automation are critical elements for a sub-custodian to deliver efficiency and security in the settlement process.
CIBC Mellon continues to refine its business model by leveraging the most advanced technology. As the product of a 50/50 joint venture between BNY Mellon’s and CIBC, significant resources are available that contribute to infrastructure and process enhancements for the automation and standardization of services.
One example is CIBC Mellon’s adoption of BNY’s Nexen digital information-delivery platform, which uses data analytics services to help clients by giving faster, real-time cash position and activity reporting through an improved interface for easier access from any mobile device. The firm continues to bring BNY’s technological advancements into global custody by using trade analytics to reduce the impact of trades that settle late. As millions of trades are settled each month, there are significant costs associated with late settlement. To help determine the probability of a trade settling late, CIBC Mellon uses a predictive AI engine, thus increasing market efficiency and cost savings for clients.
Leveraging data analytics is a priority. CIBC Mellon’s recently announced strategic collaboration with Duco, a leading software-as-a-service provider of AI-powered data automation, will contribute to lowering operational risk and streamlining processes for greater efficiency. —David Sanders
CEO — Mal Cullen
World’s Best Transaction Bank: Bank of America
Bank of America (BofA), our award winner as Best Bank for Transaction Banking and Best Bank for Collections, works closely with large global organizations that have accounts in multiple currencies, helping them to create liquidity strategies to optimize working capital and weather unpredictable market dynamics. According to Mark Monaco, head of Global Transaction Services, it involves bringing awareness of BofA’s existing solutions, built over the years, and then proactively advising clients on which ones address the various challenges they may face, such as forecasting, increasing costs, and the need to optimize return on cash. “Many corporates have limited experience dealing with uncertainty, especially when combined with very high interest rates, and are unsure how to plan or adjust,” says Monaco. “Some may lack the appropriate treasury management solutions or may not know how to maximize liquidity process efficiency.”
Higher interest rates make unplanned funding shortfalls more expensive, he adds. “These shortfalls are more likely if a company has not fully automated its processes. Resistance to making operational investments when interest rates are high results in many companies looking to cut costs and becoming hesitant to make substantial investments in treasury management solutions.”
As rates change, treasurers may be unsure about how to continue optimizing the value of cash balances and may fall back on “safe” approaches that may not be flexible enough to keep up with the changing economic environment.
Monaco says that in addition to rising rates, high inflation increases the cost of goods and services, eating into liquidity and cash reserves.
“Another factor impacting the delivery of treasury and cash management solutions is the rapidly changing regulatory environment,” adds Monaco. “Across the world, markets are facing new compliance obligations spurred by developments in real-time payments schemes, AML/KYC [anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer measures], cyber threats, sanctions compliance, and data sharing and localization. Companies and their partner banks are having to enhance and improve both infrastructure and processes as a result.”
BofA brought all payments activities under a new Global Payments Solutions division in recognition of the strategic importance of payments to the bank. —Gilly Wright
Head of Global Transaction Services — Mark Monaco
World’s Best Bank For Sustainable Finance: Societe General
Societe Generale (SocGen) bolstered its reputation for sustainable finance innovation in November when it served as sole manager of the first digital green bond ever issued. The €10 million senior preferred unsecured bond was tokenized and directly registered by SG-Forge on the ethereum public blockchain. Blockchain, says SocGen, can potentially increase the traceability and transparency of ESG-related bonds for both issuers and investors.
SocGen also stands out for its reach and versatility. Last year, it was active in ESG projects on all six inhabited continents, including many parts of Africa, and it remains one of the few commercial banks that has ever issued green, social and sustainable bonds, according to Natixis.
In the project finance sphere, the bank was active on many fronts in 2023, including in October as sole debt financial adviser and mandated lead arranger on Automotive Energy Supply Corporation’s €873 million battery storage factory in France’s Battery Valley. Elsewhere, it helped finance offshore wind projects in Poland and South Korea; onshore renewables in Japan, Australia, Egypt and Vietnam; and critical materials projects in Mongolia and Africa. —Andrew Singer
Global Head of Sustainable and Positive Impact Finance Solutions — Eric Bonnin
https://www.societegenerale.com/
World’s Best Islamic Financial Institution: Kuwait Finance House
Kuwait Finance House (KFH) earned its recognition as Best Islamic Financial Institution worldwide thanks to innovation in Islamic financing, a wide geographical footprint and strong operations. KFH is the second-largest Islamic bank globally, providing services to customers in the Middle East, Asia and Europe through extensive distribution channels. It has subsidiaries in Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Malaysia, the UK and Germany.
Last year was KFH’s first full year of integration following its 2022 acquisition of Ahli United Bank of Bahrain. Total assets stood at 37.87 billion Kuwaiti dinars at the end of 2023, as net profit jumped to 672 million dinars from 428 million dinars, for a return on average assets of 1.8%. The firm’s overall financial profile is solid, supported by good capitalization and liquidity. Its Islamic banking products and services cover commercial, retail and corporate banking as well as real estate, trade finance and investments.
During 2023, KFH launched Tam Digital Bank, Kuwait’s first Shariah-compliant digital bank. It was also at the forefront in launching several digital services, including detecting biometric facial features in branches, instant printing for all types of cards, its Zaheb digital platform and KFHonline for corporates, digital portfolios to facilitate e-payment and a D-POS device for instant opening of bank accounts. —Darren Stubing
CEO — Abdulwahab Iesa Alrushood
World’s Best Investment Bank: J.P. Morgan
With a highly skilled team of investment bankers, J.P. Morgan remains undeterred in the face of geopolitical turmoil to provide exceptional investment banking solutions. In 2023 when, according to Dealogic, global investment banking fees for the industry fell 16% to $66.5 billion, J.P. Morgan was able to retain its top position in global investment banking revenue, capturing an 8.7% revenue market share. Regionally, the bank retained the top spot in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In the Asia-Pacific region, apart from Japan, the bank rose to be top fee earner from the fourth position, year-over-year, with improved performance in Southeast Asia, South Korea, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Australasia. This success is the result of a deep and talented team of bankers. J.P. Morgan recognizes the importance of developing its staff by rotating senior management to broaden their roles. The firm recently announced new and increased responsibilities for some key executives to position the investment bank for future success and growth. —DS
Co-CEOs, Commercial & Investment Bank — Jennifer Piepszak and Troy Rohrbaugh
WORLD’S BEST CASH MANAGEMENT BANK
Citi
Citi, our winner as Best Bank for Cash Management, recently combined Treasury and Trade Solutions and Securities Services under one umbrella. At the June Citi 2024 Services Investor Day, Shahmir Khaliq, head of Services, noted that “it made sense to bring these businesses together under one portfolio, as they have strong synergies across our entire institutional client base.”
“Our clients are looking for fully integrated solutions across the entire continuum of accept, hold, pay and finance as they look to scale quickly and globally,” added Debopama Sen, head of Payments at Citi, at the time. She added that acceptance capabilities are powered by Spring by Citi, an end-to-end digital payment acceptance solution. Hold capabilities include integrated liquidity and a banking-as-a-service offering that allows e-commerce clients to serve their merchants and seller customers. Payment solutions then enable clients to manage payouts globally, including navigation of cross-border complexities. And finally, Sen pointed out that for finance, Citi offers tailored offerings for e-commerce businesses, including the ability to offer flexible financing options and working capital management solutions. —GW
Head of Services — Shamir Khaliq
World’s Best Trade Finance Provider: BNY Mellon
With comprehensive trade outsourcing services, BNY Mellon is the bank of choice for other financial institutions looking to avoid high costs without losing trade finance customers. To limit compliance costs, for example, many financial institutions worldwide have restricted the number of Swift’s Relationship Management Application (RMA) exchanges they maintain with their correspondent banks. BNY Mellon developed RMA as a service to help banks route their Swift MT 700 letter of credit messages directly to the beneficiaries’ banks, using BNY Mellon as an intermediary bank for their letter of credit activity.
A multibank supply chain finance program that includes collaboration with fintechs ensures cash optimization for corporate buyers and supports the working capital needs of their suppliers. —GW
Managing Director and Global Head, Trade Finance Product & Portfolio Group Manager — Joon Kim
World’s Best Supply Chain Finance Provider: Citi
Present in over 90 countries, Citi’s supply chain finance (SCF) network supports over 4,000 buyers and 95,000 suppliers. In business for almost 20 years, Citi Supplier Finance’s offering includes digital platforms that streamline processes, seamless technical implementation that is adaptable to various enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and effortless electronic onboarding of suppliers. Recent additions include Citi Dynamic Discounting, which enables cash-rich clients to invest excess liquidity directly into their supply chain and provides liquidity to small and midsize suppliers to improve cash flow. Citi provides a single platform and file transmission for both SCF and dynamic discounting. For suppliers, Citi Supplier Finance offers an app that selects receivables to be discounted via mobile phone. —GW
Managing Director, Head of Trade and Working Capital Solutions — Chris Cox
World’s Best Foreign Exchange Provider: UBS
Last year was nothing short of historic for our Best Global Foreign Exchange Bank, UBS. Between the takeover of its longtime rival, Credit Suisse, in what analysts call the most important banking M&A in history, and the substantial growth of its foreign exchange (FX) operation in developing markets, the behemoth bank has done it all with unrivaled excellence.
The takeover of its rival’s operation led to substantial growth in clientele and traded volume in European markets, resulting in solid profitability growth. It also led to key additions to UBS’ FX team, further expanding the bank’s knowledge.
At the same time, UBS teams in Asia, the Middle East,and Latin America have kept working relentlessly to improve the bank’s digital offering for emerging market currencies.
As a result of this unmatched year, the Swiss-based giant now ranks as one of the largest private wealth managers in the world, with undisputed market share in Europe. It has also watched its emerging markets FX operation expand into one of the world’s largest, expanding the bank’s offerings to its clients worldwide.
Among the bank’s most significant global technological breakthroughs is UBS’ FX Engine Room, with which the bank can place all analytics in one place for use by its global sales force, thus broadening the footprint of its operations to clients looking to trade currencies on a global scale. —Thomas Monteiro
Group CEO — Sergio Ermotti
World’s Best Private Bank: J.P. Morgan Private Bank
This year’s volatile macroeconomic backdrop did not phase our back-to-back award winner, J.P. Morgan. The global behemoth seized the opportunities that volatility afforded, posting phenomenal growth.
With an increasing focus on high-end clients, JPMorgan Chase’s wealth management division grew its net income an impressive 36% year-on-year (YoY) in the first quarter of 2023, 22% in the second, and 16% in the third. A key driver was JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of failing First Republic Bank in May 2023, a move that calmed the threat of a deeper crisis in the US banking industry.
Moreover, J.P. Morgan Private Bank kept improving its offerings and global presence. This year, it opened a new US Family Office Practice and added to its teams in Asia and Latin America, while making changes in upper management in both regions. —TM
CEO — David Frame
https://privatebank.jpmorgan.com
World’s Best SME Bank: BTG Pactual Empresas
For the second year running, the Brazilian digital bank BTG Pactual Empresas has swept the Best SME Bank awards for Brazil, Latin America and the world. The bank has eased access to capital for micro, small, and midsize enterprises (MSMEs), representing approximately 90% of Brazilian companies.
Clients get a low-touch digital channel, available 24/7, that nevertheless provides a high-touch experience using open banking standards and Brazil’s PIX instant payment system. For example, BTG Pactual Empresas has shortened the time needed to obtain credit to about 30 minutes for clients participating in rural credit programs, solar-power and green financing, and women-owned businesses. Newly opened SME accounts are operable within an hour.
Once an SME account is open, account owners can export their banking data to standard spreadsheets, Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, instantly reconciling accounts in their ERP systems.
BTG Pactual Empresas provides such additional services as single-sign-on multiuser and multi-business accounts, online invoicing, collection management, budgeting capabilities, foreign currency exchange and digital receipts, along with payroll, insurance, and tax and investment services. Clients can reach expert support anytime via chat, email, WhatsApp and toll-free calling. —RD
CEO — Roberto Sallouti
https://empresas.btgpactual.com