Our rankings reveal the 50 biggest emerging market banks amid China’s slowdown and India’s rapid rise.
China is mired in an economic slump that is expected to further worsen in 2026. Concerns over the downturn prompted Fitch to downgrade the country’s sovereign rating, citing a “continued weakening of China’s public finances and a rapidly rising public debt trajectory during the country’s economic transition.” Additionally, the agency expects that “sustained fiscal stimulus will be deployed to support growth.” Stimulus contributes to asset growth in the country’s banking sector through the financing of large infrastructure projects and incremental loan growth.
But in a show of China’s continued dominance in our ranking of the 50 Biggest Emerging Market Banks in 2025, Chinese banks take the top 15 spots and account for half of all institutions in the ranking. However, despite its 4% aggregate growth, the country’s share of total banking assets in the top 50 has declined to about 84% from 90% last year as banks in the eight other countries in the rankings are expanding more rapidly.
Most notable are the five Indian banks, which averaged 14% year-over-year asset growth. Among emerging market countries, India’s economy is leading the pack, with GDP growth of 6.5% in 2024 and a forecast of 6.6% in 2025 and 6.2% in 2026. Recognizing India’s sustained progress, S&P upgraded its sovereign rating in August, stating that its “robust economic expansion is having a constructive effect on India’s credit metrics.” The agency expects “sound economic fundamentals to underpin growth momentum over the next two to three years.” Furthermore, the agency’s view is that “continued policy stability and high infrastructure investment will support India’s long-term growth prospects.”
If China’s banks are excluded, a clearer global view of the biggest emerging market banks materializes. India adds four more for a total of nine banks in the rankings, with State Bank of India moving to the top from 16th place here. Brazil’s Banco do Brasil would then take third place, with two South Korean banks rounding out the top 5. Other countries entering the rankings would be Egypt, Mexico, and Poland.
Global Finance has China dominating the top of the biggest bank rankings.
While many factors contribute to fluctuations in bank balance sheets, sustained global economic expansion continues to underpin the asset growth reflected in our 2025 ranking of the world’s biggest banks. In the aggregate, these banks account for $95.5 trillion in assets, up 3% year over year. Once again, Chinese banks hold the top four spots on the list and place 15 institutions overall. The pace of expansion for this subset has been slightly higher at 4%, with assets totaling $38.4 trillion. The Chinese top four are majority state-owned policy banks, which have grown a bit faster at 5%. Their franchises typically benefit from large government stimulus measures and infrastructure spending.
In North America, the US places six institutions in our ranking, with assets growing only about 1.4% year on year. Notably, JPMorgan Chase has over $4 trillion in assets. All four Canadian banks showed balance-sheet expansion, leading to an overall increase of about 4.6%.
Among European banks, HSBC leads the pack with over $3 trillion in assets. The region holds 19 spots, with aggregate assets up about 1.7%. On a country level, France places the most, with six institutions, followed by the UK with five.
Our Asia-Pacific region winners include three Japanese banks while Australia now places two banks, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia a new entrant. State Bank of India rounds out our ranking.
HomeAwardsWorld’s Safest Banks 2025: Islamic Banks In GCC
GCC banking institutions display the importance of growing open banking.
The evolution of Islamic banking in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is accelerating as new products and regulatory developments shape the industry. For the institutions cited in our ranking of the Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC, an important area of growth is open banking, which allows bank customers to securely share financial data with third-party providers. This represents a significant opportunity to capture new business with commercial clients, particularly in the small to midsized enterprise segment.
Embedded Shariah-compliant products enable a range of services for real-time cash management, collections, and payments. To speed this development, Islamic banks are expanding partnerships with fintechs. GCC countries have made this area a high priority. The Saudi Central Bank has launched an open banking platform, establishing frameworks for corporate APIs: an important component of the bank’s fintech strategy related to the government’s Saudi Vision 2030 initiative.
The sukuk market is growing steadily—S&P estimates $200 billion in issuance during 2025, up 4% year over year—but the market must adapt to maintain growth as heightened regulation is on the horizon. Under evaluation is a new guideline (Standard 62) from the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) that alters the dynamics of the sukuk market. According to S&P, the new standard will mean “a market shift from structures in which contractual obligations of sukuk sponsors underpin repayment to structures where the underlying assets have a more prominent role. This could change the nature of sukuk as an instrument, exposing investors to higher risk, and increase market fragmentation.”
A new leader has emerged in our 2025 ranking of the Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC. Al Rajhi Bank, the largest Islamic bank globally, has claimed the top spot thanks to a Moody’s upgrade to Aa3 after the agency raised Saudi Arabia’s sovereign rating to the same level last November.
Emerging markets are navigating new risks from tariffs.
Because many emerging market countries rely heavily on exports, their economies and banking systems face heightened risk from the imposition of US tariffs. With this segment representing some of the largest trading partners of the US, including China, South Korea, and Taiwan, tension surrounding trade negotiations continues to escalate—particularly with China, following the US administration’s most recent threat of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. Notably, institutions in these three countries represent half of our 50 Safest Emerging Markets banks. South Korean banks claim the top three positions and place nine overall, while China and Taiwan place eight banks each among our rankings.
In every country impacted by US tariff policy, the banking sector must navigate the collateral damage its clients experience due to disrupted trade flows and supply chains. For emerging market economies, the declining value of the US dollar softens some of this impact through relatively cheaper import costs in these markets and eases dollar debt service for those countries and corporations with outstanding dollar-denominated debt. Not surprisingly, emerging market GDP growth expectations have fallen. In the October edition of its World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund forecasts a decline for the emerging market and developing economies from 4.3% in 2024 to 4.2% in 2025 and 4% by 2026.
The GDP decline forecast for China is more pronounced, with 5% growth in 2024 falling to 4.8% in 2025, and further to 4.2% in 2026. An overall deterioration in China’s credit fundamentals prompted Fitch to downgrade the country’s sovereign rating in April to A from A+. As a rationale for the move, the agency cites “a continued weakening of China’s public finances and a rapidly rising public debt trajectory during the country’s economic transition.”
“Sustained fiscal stimulus will be deployed to support growth, amid subdued domestic demand, rising tariffs, and deflationary pressures.”
Fitch Ratings
Fitch adds that “this support, along with a structural erosion in the revenue base, will likely keep fiscal deficits high.” Following this action, the agency downgraded China Development Bank (its ranking fell to No. 13 from No. 8 last year), Agricultural Development Bank of China (to No. 14 from No. 9), and Export-Import Bank of China (to No. 15 from No. 10).
Moody’s upgraded Saudi Arabia’s sovereign ratings in November, with the view that the kingdom’s progress in economic diversification will be sustained, further reducing its exposure to oil market developments and providing a more conducive environment for sustainable development of the country’s nonhydrocarbon economy. Meanwhile, S&P recognized the country’s sustained socioeconomic and capital market reforms with a March 2025 upgrade. Bank upgrades followed, allowing Saudi National Bank to climb to No. 25 in our rankings from No. 35 last year, Al Rajhi moved up to No. 26 from No. 36, and Riyad Bank is now No. 36, up from No. 49.
The kingdom doubled its representation in our rankings to six banks, as Saudi Awwal Bank (No. 41), Banque Saudi Fransi (No. 43), and Arab National Bank (No. 45) are new to the Top 50 this year. Consequently, these moves pushed Ahli Bank, China Merchants Bank, and Banco de Credito e Inversiones from our rankings. Moody’s upgrades provided the catalyst for upward shifts in our rankings. Better credit fundamentals at Emirates NBD Bank, based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), allowed the bank to rise eight places to No. 17; while Taiwan’s E.SUN Commercial Bank’s improving business franchise, robust risk management, and corporate governance helped move the bank up nine places to No. 30.
Strengthened by recent profits, global banks enter a new phase defined by falling rates, political volatility, and the disruptive promise of AI.
Banks’ most basic job is to be a safe haven in a turbulent world. That turbulence is increasing.
Even so, the industry enters this uncertain period from a position of relative strength, buoyed by recent profits and a growing belief that artificial intelligence could unlock the next wave of efficiency and growth. Yet, this strong foundation now faces significant headwinds.
In recent years, rising interest rates have delivered wider margins and fatter profits for banks across much of the world. Now, however, rates are falling again. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is upending trade relations in the world’s largest economy, spreading uncertainty that could constrain credit appetite everywhere. In addition, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is stuck in a cycle of overproduction and underconsumption that its leaders appear unable to address.
Compounding these external challenges, nonbank lenders continue to seize market share—from corporate buyouts to family mortgages. Meanwhile, nonbank payment systems—ranging from stablecoins to sovereign digital currencies—provide alternatives to traditional interbank networks.
“We are living in a multi-shock world,” says Sean Viergutz, banking and capital markets advisory leader at consultant PwC.
Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder of Evident
Beyond these outside disruptions, the biggest shock of all is coming from within: AI. Bank managers are now rushing to apply Silicon Valley’s new magic to their back offices and, to some extent, client relations, showing an intensity that overshadows external concerns.
“AI is top of mind in almost every meeting out there,” says Amit Vora, Head of Sales – Regional Banks and Asset Managers, Crisil Intergal IQ, a division of Crisil (majority owned by S&P Global). “It’s part of the banking vocabulary more than risk and credit today.”
Rewards in the AI race are still some way off, cautions Alexandra Mousavizadeh, co-founder of Evident, a London-based consultant that tracks AI adoption in financial services. Revolutionary “agentic AI” systems are expected to come online only in 2028, though the tools are still evolving. Nevertheless, banks have little choice but to push forward, drawn by AI’s potential to cut costs and sharpen competitiveness. This transformative impact is driving major organizational changes.
“Once this hits the bottom line, the gap between leaders and laggards will become very clear,” Mousavizadeh forecasts.
Profits Up, Rates And Regs Down
Luckily, the last few years have left the industry with solid buffers against multiple shocks. Revenue at the 25 largest global banks jumped 9% in 2024. The biggest banks in the US and Europe—JPMorgan Chase and HSBC, respectively—both raked in record profits. And Europe has seen a banking renaissance since post-pandemic inflation forced the European Central Bank to raise rates after a decade of near-zero rates.
“We’ve been busy upgrading banks for years,” says Giles Edwards, sector lead for European financial institutions at S&P Global Ratings. “Things look OK from a fundamental credit perspective.”
The ECB has slashed its key rate in half to 2% since mid-2024. Banks can live with that, says Johann Scholtz, European bank analyst at Morningstar.
“There will be some pressure on net interest income, but I don’t think margins will collapse,” he predicts. The US Federal Reserve has cut rates by 125 basis points to 4.25% since August 2024. More rate cuts are expected this year.
Japan, the fourth-largest economy, is going the other way. The Bank of Japan shifted from negative rates to 0.5%. The economy returned to growth in 2024 after a recession. Markets expect the benchmark rate to reach 1% in 2026.
All of which is good news for banks, at least the big ones based in Tokyo, says Nana Otsuki, a senior fellow at Pictet Asset Management. “Broadly speaking, the banks are in good shape,” she says.
The global regulatory storm unleashed after the 2008 financial crisis is finally ebbing, if not reversing. European authorities are talking up “simplification” of oversight across industries. And the Trump administration is philosophically committed to deregulation, although specifics are rolling out more slowly than the industry might like.
“This could be the biggest period in regulatory change since the global financial crisis, but we need the fine print,”
Brendan Browne, Edwards’ counterpart for US banks at S&P Global
Writ large, governments have stopped being a major headwind—or headache—for bankers, for the moment. “There’s a certain optimism that we have turned the corner,” Vora says. “Banks can look away from regulatory concerns to internal projects that improve profitability.”
Growth Shaky But AI May Help
What’s not looking great for banks is the outlook for growth. On the positive side, the global economy is so far holding up better than expected in the face of Trump’s tariff onslaught.
“All signs point to a world economy that has generally withstood acute strains from multiple shocks,” Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said at the IMF’s annual meeting in October. But bank lending is concentrated in big corporations, which are more exposed to trade disruptions. In emerging markets, consumer credit is less developed and now faces competition from online neobanks.
“We are having a lot of conversations about finding better methods to deal with macroeconomic stress,” Vora says.
European financiers see “no real source of growth,” adds Morningstar’s Scholtz.
The US picture is more dynamic. Commercial bank credit climbed 5% from January to October, the Fed reports. But much, if not most, of that increase came from lending to private credit funds, whose opaque operations could pose as much risk as reward.
The dangers appeared in the recent bankruptcy of Texas-based auto parts maker First Brands. The company used billions in off-balance-sheet financing from private credit firms like BlackRock and Jefferies. This could signal more trouble ahead. Non-bank financial institutions(NBFIs) now make up about 10% of US banks’ loan books, notes S&P’s Browne.
“When something is growing that quickly, it’s going to raise some red flags, [with] questions about whether the banks understand it well enough,” he cautions.
The IMF added its own warning recently. “Banks’ growing exposures to NBFIs mean that adverse developments at these institutions could significantly affect banks’ capital ratios,” the multilateral watchdog found.
Even in China, the world’s most prodigious credit machine is sputtering, says Logan Wright, partner and head of China markets research at the Rhodium Group. State-owned banks there have long been obliged to support politically connected enterprises and roll over any loans that look shaky.
“China’s banks have been asked to weather the cost of quasi-fiscal lending for years,” Wright says. But Beijing’s anti-involution campaign, aimed at curbing industrial overproduction, has tapped the brakes on this process without exactly enforcing financial discipline. The result is a walking-wounded banking system, in sharp contrast to the burgeoning tech sector that has rekindled equity investors’ interest in China, Wright notes. Credit growth has hit historic lows. Banking profits fell last year and will likely fall again in 2025.
Systemic reform would put too many jobs at “zombie” companies at risk and dry up tax revenue for local governments. So, bankers limp on.
“Nothing in the short term looks threatening, but nothing in the long term looks sustainable”
Logan Wright, Rhodium Group
With revenue growth muted, bankers around the world have naturally turned to cost-cutting as the path to increased profit. Here, generative AI appears as a timely blessing.
With top-line expansion anemic, bankers around the world have naturally turned to cost-cutting as the path to increased profit. For that purpose, generative AI looks like a timely blessing. It’s not hard to see, in theory, how ChatGPT and its competitors could revolutionize a data-driven industry like finance, replacing expensive armies of human data analysts and manipulators, or, as consultants prefer to say, making their jobs more productive.
Evident’s Mousavizadeh cites one example: know-your-customer verifications for high-rolling clients, which “could take minutes or hours, not four months.” Other pipes in banks’ complex plumbing could likewise be massively automated, adds Vora, who rattles off “extracting data from loan agreements, analytical write-ups, credit memos, research notes.”
The revolution will not be quick or easy, however. “There’s a perception that AI is here and you can just plug it in,” Mousavizadeh says. “Nothing could be farther from the truth.”
Integrating AI into banking should not cost the massive investments envisioned by the hyperscalers battling to provide the underlying technology, says PwC’s Viergutz. But it will require “re-engineering business models front to back,” he says, rethinking essential processes that span geographies and layers of management.
The revolution will likely not be bloodless, either, as the banks that get AI right—and first—will eat their competitors’ lunch. With some exceptions, large banks with robust IT capabilities and the resources to attract AI talent stand to benefit the most, as effective AI use becomes a differentiator in profitability and growth.
Advantage should particularly accrue to large US banks, Mousavizadeh predicts. They have deeper pockets than their peers in Europe and elsewhere and can more easily poach the necessary brains from Silicon Valley.
“Rewiring requires specialized expertise, which is logical to pull in from tech companies,” she notes.
This year’s other front-page tech trend, digital assets, has so far had more limited relevance for banks. The category has rapidly gained legitimacy, particularly in the US, through Congress’s passage of the GENIUS Act, stablecoin issuer Circle’s $1 billion-plus OPI, and the president’s own $Trump meme coin. Demand for stablecoins and other digital instruments remains concentrated well beyond US shores, particularly in emerging markets, where people have historically used US cash in place of unstable domestic currencies and/or underdeveloped payment networks.
India, Nigeria, and Indonesia were the global Big Three for crypto transactions last year, according to researcher Chainalysis. “The extent of demand for stablecoins remains unclear in the US or Europe,” S&P’s Edwards says.
However, established banks are keenly interested in the blockchain technology that underpins digital assets, notes Biswarup Chatterjee, head of partnerships and innovation at Citigroup. Citi is seeing “very good adoption” of tokenized deposits, he notes, particularly from multinational corporations looking to link accounts around the world more seamlessly.
“Potentially no more having to send funds from New York on Friday evening to get them in time for use in Singapore on Monday morning,” he explains. “They can move money when and as they need it.”
Pioneered along with Bitcoin in 2009, blockchain networks are “converging around a few well-known protocols,” Chatterjee notes. “You’re almost able to see standard programming languages.”
Stage Set For Consolidation?
With no rising tide of growth to lift all boats, and ongoing technical shocks shaking some of the weaker craft, banking consolidation is expected to accelerate. In the US, home to more than 4,400 licensed banks, market pressures are getting an extra push from Washington, which has signaled more lenient antitrust regulation.
Fifth Third Bancorp, based in Cincinnati, fired what could be the opening gun last month, acquiring Texas-based Comerica in a transaction worth $11 billion to form the ninth-biggest US bank. More such deals could follow.
“The favorable regulatory landscape should drive consolidation,” Viergutz argues. “You could see one or two more deals of this scale.”
Japanese banks are showing an urge to merge for different reasons. Positive interest rates, after decades of deflation, are awakening ambitions to grab more customers and make more loans.
“In a world of interest rates, banks are eager to secure deposits to earn higher margins,”
Eiji Tanaguchi, senior economist at Japan Research Institute
An archipelago of 200 banks, many linked to shrinking rural communities, is under pressure as Tokyo increasingly dominates the national economy, Pictet’s Otsuki notes. “On a 10-year trend, Tokyo is absorbing almost all the new money,” she says. “Part of this is inheritance as the younger generation moves to the capital.”
Two deals this year—Gunma Bank merging with Daishi Hokuetsu Financial and Chiba Bank with Chiba Kogyo Bank—have already reshaped the regional banking landscape, although authorities seem less enthusiastic than across the Pacific.
“Support for consolidation is implicit, but not explicit,” Otsuki says.
Banking consolidation in Europe, by contrast, has stalled out.
Italy’s Unicredit tried to catalyze a long-anticipated wave of cross-border mergers last year with a raid on Germany’s Commerzbank, but a cold shoulder from Berlin prompted it to stop at a 26% shareholding. Unicredit CEO Andrea Orcel now says he hopes his target will “see the light over time.”
Other European governments are of a like mind with Germany’s lead, preferring insured deposits to stay in the hands of familiar national champions, Morningstar’s Scholtz says. “It’s really the same old story,” he says. “Governments have not been helpful.”
At the risk of a contradiction in terms, then, late 2025 is an exciting time to be a banker: so long as you are not a banker whose job is threatened by a bot or maybe running a private credit book. After years of adapting to stricter regulations and enduring near-zero interest rates, the industry has more of its destiny in its own hands and a firm balance sheet to pursue it.
“This period brings new opportunities for the sector,” Viergutz says. “Banks are becoming investible again. Profitability can go way up. I think it’s a win.”
For some, it probably does, and for others, much remains unclear.
Major Latin American banks are racing toward 100% digital models. Despite the rise of fintechs, traditional banks are determined not to be left behind.
Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword in Latin America; it is an existential imperative.
Digital natives like Brazilian neobank Nubank, Argentine fintech Ualá, and regional payments platform Mercado Pago are scaling into super-app ecosystems while giants like Santander and BBVA push forward with their own digital units. The next several years may determine whether traditional banks can reinvent themselves fast enough to remain competitive, or whether the fintech wave will carry Latin America into a new era of finance.
The number of fintechs operating in the region surged from 703 in 2017 to over 3,000 in 2023: a staggering 400% increase, according to a joint study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Finnovista. The explosion of financial startups has upended traditional banking, and is pressuring established institutions to reinvent themselves or risk obsolescence.
Giorgio Trettenero Castro, secretary general of the Federación Latinoamericana de Bancos (FELABAN)
Data from Accenture underscores the challenge: Digital-only banking players have grown revenue by 76% compared to 44% for traditional banks replicating legacy models online. This suggests that simply bolting digital interfaces onto outdated systems yields diminishing returns. Instead, agility and modularity are the new competitive currency.
The rise of digital-only players, the acceleration of instant payment systems like Brazil’s PIX, and the rapid adoption of super-app models are converging to redraw the competitive map. Traditional banks are racing to shed legacy systems and cultural inertia while fintechs expand aggressively into core banking territory.
Constraining the race toward 100% digital banking is a lack of up-to-date basic infrastructure, warns Giorgio Trettenero Castro, secretary general of the Federación Latinoamericana de Bancos (FELABAN).
“Financial services demand that the general public have access to quality, competitively priced internet,” he says. “That is not entirely the case in Latin America, where rural areas face a deeper divide; only 39% of rural populations have internet access. Moreover, Latin America has just 4.8% of the world’s data centers, with Brazil in the lead. This shortage hampers competitiveness and raises costs.”
These structural weaknesses coexist with distinct opportunities. About 57% of fintechs target the region’s unbanked population, according to the IDB and Finnovista report. Currently, around 20% of Latin American adults are not financially included, according to a 2024 study by Mastercard and Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence: a substantial population waiting to be tapped.
Newcomers Reshape The Financial Arena
Traditional banks and fintechs increasingly resemble each other when it comes to their processes.
“In the past, a customer had to bring a pile of documents and meet with a bank manager to open an account and wait several days. Now, everything can be done in minutes on a smartphone: an innovation pioneered by Nubank 12 years ago,” observes José Leoni, managing director at Moneymind Partners, a São Paulo-based financing advisory firm. “Back in the 1980s, the main customer retention tool was automatic debit, clearly a tech innovation for the time. Today, every bank has similar offerings. What makes a bank attractive now are costs, a unified platform for all products, and customer experience.”
Banco do Brasil has put significant effort into customer experience, but despite a technology investment that reached $554 million last year, it still maintains legacy systems.
“Now we have 30% of our applications in cloud computing, so we operate on a hybrid system that has worked well so far,” says Bárbara Lopes, head of Customer Experience for digital and physical channels Banco do Brasil.
Bárbara Lopes, head of Customer Experience for digital and physical channels Banco do Brasil
While part of its infrastructure remains on-premises, Banco do Brasil considers itself 100% digital, as 94% of clients using its app carry out their transactions through digital channels. Of its 86 million total clients, 31 million are active digital users, a number that continues to grow yearly.
“Our goal is to provide a good, customized experience with AI to serve all our different audiences,” Lopes says: “young people, vulnerable populations, agribusiness workers, and entrepreneurs.” Competition is massive, she notes, and personalizing customer experience is one of the most important strategies for retaining clients.
Banco de Inversiones de Chile (BCI) has adopted a similar strategy, stressing investment in technology as critical to keeping up with trends and delivering a better customer experience.
“Innovation and data management are fundamental pillars of BCI’s growth strategy,” says Claudia Ramos, manager of Innovation and Data Analytics. “That’s why, in recent years, we invested $100 million in our app, which delivered benefits representing nearly 20% of our EBITDA. Today, all our customers use digital channels.”
BCI’s road to digitalization began in 2015; two years later, it launched Machbank, a fully digital neobank offering investment solutions to improve customer experience and broaden inclusion. Machbank now has 4.2 million clients, with a youthful, userfriendly profile, out of a total of almost 6 million at BCI. The bank continues to offer a strong digital value proposition across its 183-branch network, where all customers now use digital solutions.
The latest trends point to interactions driven by massive use of technology, Ramos argues: “Simplicity, transparency, and more objective experiences are the best proposals for financial inclusion. Our next step is to further leverage AI to enhance user experience.”
Challenges Ahead
For incumbents, the challenge is often less technological than cultural; resistance within teams and reluctance to change entrenched routines often slow progress. At BTG Pactual, Marcelo Flora, managing partner and head of Digital Platforms, says he struggled for years to convince his colleagues to embrace digital transformation.
Following the example of Goldman Sachs, BTG Pactual built its reputation on asset management, wealth management, and investment banking, generating comfortable profits of R$4 billion per year ($736 million) in 2014.
“We were victims of our own success,” says Flora: why change a model that was working so well?
Once fintechs emerged and incumbents started to lag, however, BTG Pactual prepared itself for the next wave. The results were striking; profits quadrupled in 10 years, from $736 million to $2.9 billion.
“Now we have the speed of a fintech and the credibility of an incumbent,” Flora says.
Most banks established before the rise of digital players have faced similar hurdles.
“The main challenge is usually not technological, but cultural and organizational,” agrees Andrés Fontão, CEO of Finnosummit, organizer of the annual Latin American fintech conference. “Many institutions carry inherited structures and processes, and if senior management is not fully aligned with the digitalization mission or able to transmit that vision downward, change stalls.”
Digital banking lowers the barriers that traditional models raise: fewer documents, no need to visit a branch, simpler interfaces. This opens doors for previously excluded populations.
“In Mexico, only about 55% of adults had an account in 2023,” notes Fontão. “Other reports indicate just 49% are banked, leaving about 66 million people without access. But between 2017 and 2021, Latin America saw the largest increase in financial inclusion globally—19%—thanks to innovations such as digital payments, online commerce, and digital subsidy distribution.”
That does not mean branch banking is going the way of the dodo.
“Although neobanks are cheaper to operate because they don’t maintain physical branches and promote digital inclusion, in Latin America, the belief in bank branches remains strong,” says Francisco Orozco, professor at the Center for Financial Access, Inclusion and Research of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. “Reputation is essential, and even though young people are digital natives, there is a kind of inherited financial habit. Most people still want to use cash and visit branches.”
Leveraging this predilection, Nu Mexico signed an agreement with the OXXO convenience store chain in January to expand its cash deposit and withdrawal network.
“This is a way to promote digital inclusion,” says Orozco.
Beyond Branches And Borders
Latin America’s transformation could point the way for other developing regions. It combines massive unmet demand, agile fintech innovation, and regulatory experimentation. If incumbents can overcome cultural inertia and infrastructure gaps, they may leapfrog into a model of fully digital, inclusive, and interoperable banking.
The United States Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 – 4.00 percent, amid signs of a slowing labour market and continued pressure on consumer prices.
The cut, announced on Wednesday, marks the US central bank’s second rate cut this year.
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“Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remained low through August; more recent indicators are consistent with these developments. Inflation has moved up since earlier in the year and remains somewhat elevated,” the Fed said in a statement.
“Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated.”
The cuts were largely in line with expectations. Earlier on Wednesday, CME Fed Watch — which tracks the likelihood of rate cuts — said there was a 97.8 percent probability of rate cuts.
After the September cut, economists had largely been expecting two additional rate cuts for the rest of this year. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, HSBC, and Morgan Stanley, among others, forecast one more 25-basis-point reduction by year’s end following Wednesday’s cut. Bank of America Global Research is the only major firm that is not anticipating another 25-basis-point cut in 2025.
“The Fed has a challenging line to walk; lower interest rates to support labour markets and growth, or raise them to tamp down inflation. For now, they are taking a cautious approach tilted a bit towards the growth concerns,” Michael Klein, professor of international economic affairs at The Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts, told Al Jazeera.
Despite forecasts, Federal reserve chairman Jerome Powell isn’t necessarily inevitable.
“We haven’t made a decision about December,” Powell told reporters in a press conference.
“We remain well-positioned to respond in a timely way to potential economic developments.”
Government shutdown implications
The cuts come as economic data becomes increasingly scarce amid the ongoing government shutdown, now in its 29th day as of Wednesday, making it the second-longest in US history, behind the 35-day shutdown during the first presidency of Donald Trump in late 2018 and early 2019.
Because of the shutdown, the Department of Labor did not release the September jobs report, which was scheduled for October 3. The only major government economic data released this month was the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks the cost of goods and services and is a key measure of inflation. The CPI rose 0.3 percent in September on a month-over-month basis to an inflation rate of 3 percent.
That data was released because the Social Security Administration required it to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for 2026. As a result, Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 2.8 percent increase in payments compared to 2025.
The shutdown, however, could have a bigger impact on next month’s central bank decision as the Labor Department is currently unable to compile the data needed for its November reports.
However, amid the limited government data, private trackers are showing a slowdown.
“We are not going to be able to have the detailed feel of things, but I think if there were a significant or material change in the economy one way or another, I think we would pick that up,” Powell said.
Consumer confidence lags
Consumer confidence fell to a six-month low, according to The Conference Board’s report that was released on Tuesday.
The data showed that lower-income earners – those making less than $75,000 a year – are less confident about the economy as fears of job scarcity loom. This comes only days after several large corporations announced waves of layoffs.
On Wednesday, Paramount cut 2,000 people from its workforce. On Tuesday, Amazon cut 14,000 corporate jobs. Last week, big box retailer Target cut 1,800 jobs. This, as furloughs and layoffs weigh on government workers. The US government is the nation’s largest employer.
Those making more than $200,000 annually remain fairly confident and are leading consumer spending that is keeping the economy afloat, according to The Conference Board.
Pressures both on consumer spending and the labour market are largely driven by tariffs weighing on consumers and businesses.
US markets are ticking up on the rate cut. The Nasdaq is up 0.5, the S&P 500 is up 0.1, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by 0.26 as of 2pm in New York (18:00 GMT).
Global Finance presents its 32nd annual list of the best banks worldwide.
If one word described the global economy in 2024, it would be “resilient.” Growth was up slightly, with global GDP growth hovering around 3.1%, while the pace of global inflation slowed to approximately 5.8% from 6.8% the previous year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Although many thought a financial crisis was imminent, none materialized as businesses continued to focus on strengthening and diversifying their supply chains, implementing digitalization strategies, and responding to rising geopolitical tensions.
In this environment, French banking giant Societe Generale took numerous crowns, winning as Global Finance’s World’s Best Bank, World’s Best Frontier Market Bank, World’s Best Transaction Bank, and World’s Best Supply Chain Provider—Bank awards.
Throughout 2024, the financial group generated €4.2 billion in group net income (up 69% from the previous year) on €26.8 billion in revenue (up 6.7%) through its 26 million clients worldwide while streamlining its core businesses and divesting others.
The Return Of The M&A
The bright spot for 2024 was the return of M&A.
“On the surface, it may appear difficult to remain sanguine after anticipating a full market resurgence for several years,” wrote Jake Henry and Mieke Van Oostende, senior partners at McKinsey, in the firm’s 2025 annual M&A report. “But many of the dynamics that stymied dealmaking for the past three years, including some that limited 2024 global deal value and volume to roughly the average of the past 20 years, are receding.”
According to data from WTW’s Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor, 15 megadeals worth more than $10 billion each closed last year, a 36% increase from 2023, and there were 162 deals valued between $1 billion and $10 billion, for a 21% increase. The number of deals totaling between $100 million and $1 billion grew approximately 15% over the same period.
Although not the “full throttle comeback that many dealmakers hoped for in 2024, performance improved (in some regions, significantly),” the McKinsey report noted. “Global dealmaking was curbed by a variety of pressures and delivered moderate returns, with deal value up 12% to $3.4 trillion.”
The year’s M&A deals were not evenly distributed geographically, however, according to WTW. North America saw the most deals closed, with 361, up 14% from the previous year. Europe notched 155 deals, up 32% from 2023. In the Asia-Pacific region, companies concluded 163 deals, representing a 5% increase.
Overall, Global Finance’s Best Banks led the way in helping to grow the M&A pipeline.
Along with the World’s Best Bank award, global honors this year include recognition as 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 and Finance Providers, Supply Chain Provider—Bank, Best Foreign Exchange Provider, Best Private Bank, and Best SME Bank.
Methodology
The editors of Global Finance, with input from industry analysts, corporate executives, and technology experts, selected the global winners of the World’s Best Banks 2025 using information provided by entrants as well as independent research based on objective and subjective factors.
Entries are not required, but experience has shown that the information supplied in an entry can increase the chances 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, 2024. Global Finance applies a proprietary algorithm to narrow the list of contenders and assign 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 in each category are those banks and providers that best serve the specialized needs of corporations engaged in global business.
Slawomir Krupa, CEO
World’s Best Bank 2025
Societe Generale
In a year of economic uncertainty, persistent inflation and supply chain reorganization, Societe Generale stood head and shoulders above its global competition, earning the titles of World’s Best Bank and World’s Best Frontier Market Bank.
Its three core businesses—French Retail Banking; Global Banking and Investment Solutions; and Mobility, International Retail Banking, and Financial Solutions—generated €4.2 billion in group net income (up 69% from the previous year) on €26.8 billion in revenue (up 6.7%).
Throughout the year, Societe Generale combined strategic investments in cutting-edge technology, sustainability, and innovation with a drive to streamline core businesses while divesting non core areas.
The French banking giant has leveraged AI in approximately 420 use cases across its operations to enhance customer support via its Sobot chatbot and Elliot callbot, personalize advice for private banking clients using its Synoé platform, and numerous middle- and back-office operational, security, and risk management functions.
The bank surpassed its goal of contributing €300 billion to sustainable finance by 2025, a year ahead of schedule. It has since raised its target to €500 billion, comprising €400 billion in financing and advisory services and €100 billion in sustainable bonds, by 2030. Sustainable finance deals, including acting as the mandated lead arranger for a $1.2 billion green loan that enabled ReNew Power to develop a combined wind, solar, and battery storage infrastructure in its home market of India, have helped Societe Generale maintain a leading global role in this field.
Among the new offerings the bank debuted in 2024 were a joint venture with AllianceBernstein, dubbed Bernstein, which combines the two companies’ equity research, sales, and trading operations.
Societe Generale meanwhile strengthened its capital base by simplifying its business model, improving efficiency and increasing existing synergies through a series of strategic divestitures. It exited its private banking operations in the UK and Switzerland with the sales of SG Kleinwort Hambros and Societe Generale Private Banking Suisse and continued divestment of its African subsidiaries in Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Morocco.
Despite these changes, Societe Generale remains the leading player in frontier markets through its Global Transaction Banking network, which spans more than 50 countries and offers a range of integrated services including managing cross-border payments, liquidity, and trade finance. Leveraging its expertise in sustainability, the bank has partnered with the International Finance Corporation to accelerate financing of energy transition projects in developing markets through its Solar Pack initiative.
Javier Rodriguez Soler, Global Head of Sustainability, Corporate & Investment Banking
World’s Best Corporate Bank 2025
BBVA
BBVA claims the title of World’s Best Corporate Bank for the third consecutive year, having expanding its market share and deal leadership during 2024. It led 86 deals across telecommunications, energy, infrastructure, consumer goods, and services for a total volume of €5.16 billion. Among these was the €6.6 billion underwriting of MasOrange, formed by the merger of the telecom companies Orange and MasMovil.
BBVA also reinforced its commitment to sustainable finance, leading the €383 million project financing of Repsol Renovables’ Gallo portfolio, a 777-megawatt solar and battery storage facility spanning Texas and New Mexico as well as the refinancing of the Monegros wind project in Aragón. Additionally, the bank directed €51.1 billion into sustainable financing throughout the year.
All told, BBVA’s Corporate & Investment Banking division earned some €5.8 billion in revenue in 2024, up 27% from the previous year, while increasing its net attributable profits by 30%.
Helping to fuel its growth has been the bank’s strategic investment in its infrastructure and technology partnerships. BBVA’s internal AI Factory has applied AI and machine learning to enhance customer experiences and streamline internal processes.
Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, Chairman
World’s Best Consumer Bank 2025
State Bank of India
Continued investment in digitalization, a growing global footprint, and innovative offerings earned the State Bank of India (SBI) its first World’s Best Consumer Bank award. Building on a history that dates back to 1806, SBI continues to enhance a menu of digital offerings that serve 132 million internet banking and 287 million mobile banking clients.
SBI reimagined its You Only Need One (YONO) banking and lifestyle mobile app in 2024 with its midyear announcement of YONO 2.0. The latest version enables users to initiate transactions at an SBI branch and complete them on the app, and vice versa, and features a more modular architecture for faster processing and transaction speeds. Other innovations include the debut of a tap-and-pay function in its BHIM SBI personal banking app, which leverages India’s Unified Payment Interface, as well as an end-to-end digital loan application for the bank’s Surya Ghar Loan scheme for the installation of rooftop solar collectors.
Despite its stress on digitalization, SBI also invested in 600 new branches across India to improve accessibility for underserved rural and semi-urban areas: more than fourfold the number of branches it opened the previous fiscal year.
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO
World’s Best Emerging Markets Bank 2025
JPMorgan Chase
One of the largest financial institutions globally, JPMorgan Chase (JPMC), wins the World’s Best Bank for Emerging Markets award for its broad set of offerings, continued focus on serving emerging markets, and overall expertise.
Although many of its competitors are pulling out of emerging markets, JPMC is expanding into them. It plans to enter new African markets or deepen its existing presence there “every couple of years or so,” Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon told Reuters last October. The bank set up a representative office in Kenya that month and new offices in Côte d’Ivoire later in the year.
JPMC had a strong 2024, raising more than $400 billion in emerging market debt, including on a rising number of debt-for-nature transactions that enable countries to repurchase existing debt on better terms and use the savings to benefit the environment. El Salvador utilized the structure to secure an approximately $1 billion loan from the bank, then used it to repurchase $1.03 billion in a tender offer. The savings were allocated to improve and protect the country’s Lempa River watershed.
Besides raising debt, JPMC’s advisory services were strengthened by the launch of a Center for Geopolitics, which provides expert analysis of geopolitical trends aimed at helping clients navigate the complexities of the global economy, manage risks, and identify new opportunities.
Emerging market clients also benefit from the bank’s global infrastructure and sizable investment in its technology platforms, JPMC says. Access to these cutting-edge systems gives clients a more efficient, secure, and convenient way to manage their finances and business operations.
World’s Best Frontier Markets Bank 2025
Societe Generale
Frontier markets are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy, as they offer significant growth, albeit with smaller capitalization and higher volatility. Banks serving frontier markets must provide a comprehensive blend of corporate and commercial banking services that go beyond lending and deposits to more complex offerings, such as trade finance, securities servicing and sustainable finance. French banking giant Societe Generale is a leader across the board, with its broad range of offerings, and has beaten out its competitors to win this year’s World’s Best Frontier Market Bank award.
The bank, with over 160 years of experience, boasts a global network spanning more than 50 countries and offers highly integrated solutions for trade finance, cross-border payments, and liquidity management.
Through increased investment in artificial intelligence and other technologies, the bank has automated numerous processes and digitized others. In securities servicing, the company has leveraged generative AI, smart workflows, and robust data management to provide an enhanced client experience for its corporate and institutional clients, resulting in a doubling of client recommendation rates and increased participation in satisfaction surveys.
Meanwhile, Societe Generale has made great leaps in sustainable finance. The bank has committed 300 billion euros to sustainable finance by 2024 and introduced a new target of 500 billion euros by 2030, with a focus on decarbonization in sectors with the highest carbon-intensive emissions. To further strengthen its position, the bank also launched its Sustainable Global Transaction Banking Framework, which enables businesses to assess and monitor the environmental and social impacts of their working capital, trade, and liquidity management activities.
Societe Generale also signed a collaboration framework agreement with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation to accelerate sustainable finance through investments in clean energy, water, and other infrastructure projects, as well as in agribusiness and women entrepreneurs.
World’s Best Transaction Bank 2025
Societe Generale
Societe Generale excels at navigating the complexities of realtime payments, offering rigorous testing and dedicated IT support including client training. While clients expect similar functionalities for domestic and cross-border payments, Jean-François Mazure, head of Cash Clearing Services, notes that they struggle to differentiate. Converging both payment types, which hinges on interlinking financial market infrastructures, is critical, he argues.
Numerous market initiatives, including immediate cross-border payments (IXB) between the US and Europe, face significant hurdles, Mazure warns: “It is truly complex from a compliance and legal framework standpoint. So, for the moment, none of these initiatives has succeeded in scaling up.”
To interconnect real-time payment systems, he says, the most likely way forward is to adopt the “one leg out” (OLO) principle already in operation for transactions involving one bank inside the European Economic Area and one bank outside. But all parties will need to continue to align for interconnectivity to be achieved, he adds. OLO’s success hinges on compliance with ISO 20022 standards as well as resolving commercial and liability challenges across various schemes.
Mal Cullen, CEO
World’s Best Sub-custodian Bank 2025
CIBC Mellon
CIBC Mellon continues to refine its comprehensive asset-servicing business model, emphasizing innovation, process efficiency, and client service. Jointly owned by Bank of New York Mellon and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, CIBC Mellon leverages CIBC’s local knowledge in the Canadian market combined with BNY’s technology and global custody infrastructure to serve institutional clients in Canada and globally. The combination has yielded consistent growth; assets under administration recently surpassed C$3 trillion ($2.2 trillion).
Ongoing priorities focus on broadening customer relationships and services through continual investment in IT and partnerships with the fintech sector, aimed at providing greater levels of core service automation along with enhanced transaction transparency and execution efficiency. This includes better straight-through processing for a seamless and secure transmission of client data, investment in pre- and post-trade communication services for trade matching and routing, and tracking of the settlement lifecycle.
Project Fuel, an enterprise-wide data and innovation initiative, is focused on transforming the client experience by equipping customers with tools to manage and analyze data more effectively, improving transparency and accelerating decision-making.
CIBC Mellon continues to enhance its online reporting platform, NEXEN, which integrates data and predictive analytics to provide clients with faster, real-time cash position and activity reporting through an improved user interface. Digital assets are expanding in the market; the bank is collaborating with stakeholders in Canada and globally and with BNY’s digital-asset unit to develop offerings in this area. This involves bolstering its data analytics capabilities and digital infrastructure through enhanced customization, automation, and service flexibility with a view to assisting clients to launch new offerings including alternative-asset ETFs and cryptocurrency funds.
Su Shan Tan, CEO
World’s Best Bank for Sustainable Finance 2025
DBS
DBS aims to green Asia’s economy by acting as an environmental-transition catalyst for anchor companies, mid-caps, and SMEs. The bank provides transition-related financing for these organizations at the corporate, project, and asset levels. Among its offerings are green, sustainability-linked, and social loans and bonds, along with carbon-market financing and other products.
Standout transactions in 2024 included a loan to LG Energy to construct a plant in Poland that manufactures batteries used in electric vehicles. A HK$3 billion (about $385.7 million) loan to the Hong Kong Housing Society will help create affordable residential projects. A S$300 million (about $224.2 million) bond will help Singaporean developer CapitaLand develop projects in alignment with green finance frameworks.
In addition, the bank develops analytical tools to track and analyze climate data and engages with industries—notably in the power, automotive, steel, shipping, and real estate sectors—and policymakers to chart paths to a healthier environment.
Khaled Yousef AlShamlan, Group CEO
World’s Best Islamic Financial Institution 2025
Kuwait Finance House
Kuwait Finance House (KFH) is recognized as the World’s Best Islamic Financial Institution for strengthening its franchise in multiple markets, for financing innovation, and for its overall operating performance. KFH provides services to customers in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia through extensive distribution channels, with an increasing emphasis on digitalization. The bank has subsidiaries in Kuwait, Turkey, Egypt, Bahrain, Iraq, Malaysia, the UK, and Germany.
KFH has made significant strides toward digital transformation in risk management, adopting the latest advancements in AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics to enhance risk measurement and monitoring. Tam Digital Bank, KFH’s digital bank in Kuwait, recorded strong customer numbers and transaction growth in 2024.
The bank’s financial profile is noticeably sound; a successful capital management program yielded a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 19.9%, considerably exceeding regulatory requirements and promising to support growth in the coming years. Return on average assets is good at 1.8% and loan asset-quality metrics are robust. KFH’s Islamic banking products and services cover commercial, retail, and corporate banking as well as real estate, trade finance, project finance, asset management, and investments.
World’s Best Investment Bank 2025
BofA Securities
Against the backdrop of thriving global stock markets and rising debt-finance activity, Bank of America (BofA) Securities’ global operations achieved an impressive 43% year-over-year jump in investment banking fees as of the fourth quarter of 2024.
The numbers were buoyed mainly by the bank’s three big areas of operations: North America, Latin America, and Europe, where the bank controlled a commanding 8.3%, 9%, and 4.4% of total investment banking fees, respectively. That boosted revenue for the full year to nearly $5.5 billion, according to Dealogic, representing around 6.2% of the global investment banking market.
BofA also scored big on M&A despite somewhat subdued activity in the field, serving as lead buy-side advisor on the $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines by Alaska Air. The bank also acted as sole buy-side financial advisor on Keurig Dr Pepper’s $990 million acquisition of energy beverage company GHOST.
Brian Moynihan, Chairman and CEO
World’s Best Bank for Cash Management 2025
Bank of America
Reflecting the demand for consistent global visibility and control, Bank of America saw the app version of its CashPro platform surpass $1 trillion in payment approvals in 2024. CashPro allows clients to manage treasury operations across multiple channels: online, app, APIs, and file-based interfaces.
“One thing that distinguishes CashPro is its global consistency,” says Tom Durkin, head of CashPro at BofA’s Global Payments Solutions, “so that when a company’s finance team has team members in different countries, they’ll all have access to the same tools, views, and processes. The advantages are obvious: better visibility and control and no additional financial outlays.”
Much of CashPro’s success is due to BofA’s close engagement with clients, Durkin notes, particularly those who participate in client board meetings.
“This dialogue is so important,” he says. “We do deep dives into our clients’ priorities and challenges, we present options for new functionality and discuss whether those innovations are going to solve their real-world issues.”
The bank’s strategic vision for CashPro “will always be to provide a best-in-class platform that is personalized, predictive, and proactive,” he adds. “One recent demonstration is how we’ve embedded CashPro into our clients’ own systems through the CashPro Network, a collaboration with third-party providers allowing quick, easy connection to the bank with little to no investment.”
World’s Best Trade Finance Provider 2025
BNP Paribas
Offering global trade finance in 44 countries and more than 100 trade centers across more than 60 countries gives BNP Paribas a strong geographical foundation for its offering of seamless trade finance solutions across borders, supporting client growth throughout the entire trade cycle.
A broad range of traditional trade finance and working capital management solutions and substantial investment in technology, including web-based e-banking platforms like Connexis Guarantee, Connexis Trade, and Connexis Supply Chain, helps the French multinational support clients with complex international trade operations. Leveraging digital solutions, such as blockchain and AI, streamlines processes, improves efficiency, and enhances customer experience.
In 2022, BNP Paribas launched a program using AI to streamline the processing of trade finance documents and improve traceability for its clients. Since then, the bank has rolled the program out to 15 countries and processed 40,000 transactions.
“We have implemented AI technology to help classify, extract data, and automate controls. This is live today and being further expanded in terms of functionalities,” says Jean-François Denis, global head of Trade Solutions. “Bank guarantees also present the potential for AI usage, such as verifying guarantee clauses against acceptable clauses, policies, and guidelines. Anti-money laundering is yet another area where we have deployed AI.”
World’s Best Supply Chain Finance Provider – Bank 2025
Societe Generale
The French banking giant introduced a new workflow product in 2024 that includes external data and better analyzes clients’ working capital needs. The new offerings include peer comparison of key receivables and payables financing elements.
On the sustainability front, Societe Generale offers an ESG version of its full range of solutions, including green or social-focused factoring, forfaiting, and sustainability-linked supply chain financing (SCF). The bank also offers a dedicated and simplified solution for retail clients and SMEs based on their ESG rating.
Finally, establishing connectivity to CRX Markets, the marketplace for working capital finance, has improved support for SocGen’s largest clients, helping to grow the bank’s SCF programs.
World’s Best Global Foreign Exchange Bank 2025
UBS
Upon completing its megamerger with Credit Suisse in May 2024, UBS leveraged its already best-in-class corporate banking, foreign exchange (FX), and product offerings for a record-breaking year. Not only did its global operation more than double analysts’ expectations in the third quarter of 2024, booking a massive $1.4 billion in net income, but it did so with a significant contribution from its corporate banking division, which saw revenue jump by more than 8% year over year.
Those numbers received a massive boost from UBS’s thriving FX operation, which averaged over $125 billion in daily electronic FX trades, with more than 2,500 active global clients. The bank posted substantial growth across several geographies and currency pairs. Among the highlights: solid profitability growth in Middle Eastern and Northern African currencies and a massive 40% market-share increase in Scandinavian currencies. In Asia, UBS’s continued efforts to improve its already top-tier suite of electronic FX capabilities paid off handsomely in China and Singapore, where it has doubled down on its data center improvement efforts.
On the technology front, UBS further expanded the limits of the global FX market, hosting the world’s first intraday FX swap in a regulated venue in July. The bank recently launched its blockchain-based multicurrency payment solution, UBS Digital Cash, processed through its flagship FX Engine Room, enhancing its overall FX offering.
World’s Best Private Bank 2025
J.P. Morgan Private Bank
For the fifth consecutive year, J.P. Morgan US Private Bank has excelled at adapting to shifting macroeconomic conditions, delivering best-in-breed results to its clients. Riding the phenomenal rebound in global investing built on improving monetary conditions and subsiding inflationary pressures, the bank saw client assets rise by 24% over the previous year, totaling more than $2.5 trillion under supervision.
Against this backdrop, revenues increased 18.5%, with pretax income showing an even more significant 36% boost year on year.
On the product side, J.P. Morgan made significant strides at integrating advanced AI tools, including JPMorgan Chase’s Connect Coach and the Chase Connect mobile app, into its award-winning product portfolio. These include risk analytics and portfolio management services that serve as a benchmark for many in the industry. Alongside these product advances, the bank added over 300 expert advisors to its team, helping it attract more than 5,400 new clients.
Roberto Sallouti, CEO
World’s Best SME Bank 2025
BTG Pactual Empresas
BTG Pactual Empresas boasts an SME lending portfolio that reached R$22.1 billion (approximately $3.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, its SME credit book growing 52% year on year. SME business now accounts for 12% of BTG Pactual’s total portfolio.
The bank attributes its SME growth in part to its digital capabilities. Its digital platform offers an integrated portfolio of SME products and services, providing access to the bank’s credit, guarantee, insurance, investments, foreign exchange, and derivatives products. Associated services accessible via the platform include creation of invoices payable by QR code; online invoicing; instant electronic bank transfers; open banking; payments to suppliers, tax authorities, and utilities; budgeting and categorized spending services; and digital receipts. The platform offers more than 45 integrations, including Telegram and Google Workspace, along with a extensive range of productivity improvement products.
Speed is a crucial benefit. The platform enables BTG to disburse 95% of its loan funds in less than 10 minutes, the bank says, 16 times faster than its competitors.
Agriculture is a big part of the Brazilian economy, and BTG offers services tailored to the sector including credit lines for agricultural products (fertilizers, pesticides, seeds); equipment financing; and infrastructure financing for the construction of silos, warehouses, and other facilities.
Activities addressing ESG issues are also important to BTG. Of its loans to corporations and SMEs, 72% are subject to social, environmental, and climate-risk analysis, in line with international best practices. R$8.9 billion of its lending portfolio aligns with the bank’s sustainable financing framework.
The French bank will pay more than $20m to three plaintiffs amid allegations of human rights abuses.
Published On 20 Oct 202520 Oct 2025
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BNP Paribas shares have tumbled as much as 10 percent after a United States jury found the French bank helped Sudan’s government commit genocide by providing banking services that violated American sanctions, raising questions about whether the lender will be exposed to further legal claims.
The bank’s shares were down on Monday morning in New York.
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The federal jury in Manhattan on Friday ordered BNP Paribas to pay a combined $20.5m to three Sudanese plaintiffs who testified about human rights abuses perpetrated under former President Omar al-Bashir’s rule.
The Paris, France-based bank said it will appeal the verdict.
“This result is clearly wrong and ignores important evidence the bank was not permitted to introduce,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
Uncertainty about whether BNP Paribas could face further claims or penalties weighed on the bank’s shares on Monday, and would likely continue to do so, traders and analysts said.
The shares dropped as much as 10 percent at one point, and were last down 8.7 percent – set for their biggest daily fall since March 2023.
Lawyers for the three plaintiffs, who now reside in the US, said the verdict opens the door for more than 20,000 Sudanese refugees in the US to seek billions of dollars in damages from the French bank.
BNP said, “this verdict is specific to these three plaintiffs and should not have broader application. Any attempt to extrapolate is necessarily wrong as is any speculation regarding a potential settlement.”
Nonetheless, analysts say the news will likely drag on the bank’s shares in the coming months.
“A combination of a lack of visibility on the potential financial impact and next legal steps, a reminder of 2014 share price performance as well as a capital path that leaves relatively little room for error, is likely to hang over the shares until more visibility is provided,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a note.
BNP Paribas in 2014 agreed to plead guilty and pay an $8.97bn penalty to settle US charges that it transferred billions of dollars for Sudanese, Iranian and Cuban entities subject to economic sanctions.
RBC said the bank’s shares underperformed the sector by 10 percent from the first litigation provision booked in early 2014 to the settlement in June 2014.
Sea otters love to play, play, play, play, play and they also have to eat, eat, eat, eat, eat — at least that’s what people say — so the Monterey Bay Aquarium is tapping Taylor Swift fans for help.
The Central Coast aquarium launched a fundraising campaign Thursday involving a re-release of one of its classic T-shirt designs to support its sea otter program and other marine conservation efforts after noticing a curious flood of $13 donations it could attribute only to Taylor Swift fans.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter is seen sporting a vintage 1993 Monterey Bay Aquarium shirt with sea otter art in “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” her movie celebrating the release of her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce, a tight end with the Kansas City Chiefs, is a known sea otter fan, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium had previously invited the couple for a special visit.
“Swifties, you truly walk the talk,” the aquarium said in a post on its website announcing the new campaign. “We tracked down the original artwork — first printed in the 1990s — and are bringing it back to say thank you, sustainably.”
The limited-time fundraiser, which offers the new eco-conscious reprints of the shirt in adult and kids sizes to those who donate $65.13, hit its initial goal in a mere seven hours, according to an update posted Thursday by the aquarium. When this story was published Friday, the total was approaching $2.2 million and the shirts were available on back order only.
“Intentional or not, by putting our sea otter conservation work in the spotlight, this has brought a new era of support and awareness to the Aquarium’s long history of ocean conservation,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium said on its website, which also features some fun Swift and sea otter crossover facts.
In addition to debuting the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift’s “Release Party” movie included behind-the-scenes footage and commentary from the artist about her songs. The 89-minute movie made $34 million at the box office over its one weekend in theaters.
For years, I parked my savings at Wells Fargo because it felt safe and familiar. The problem is it was earning almost nothing.
Wells Fargo’s standard savings account still pays just 0.01% APY, which means every $10,000 earns $1 a year in interest. One dollar.
Then I finally moved my money into a high-yield savings account (HYSA) paying around 4.00% APY, and it completely changed the math. Even if rates dip as the Fed starts cutting, I’ll still earn over $1,000 in interest over the next two years.
Here’s how that adds up, and why I keep telling everyone I know to switch.
Earning hundreds more, even if rates fall
Right now, the best HYSAs are still offering between 4.00% and 4.50% APY.
To stay realistic, let’s assume rates drop gradually:
Year 1: 3.60% APY
Year 2: 3.20% APY
I keep about $20,000 in savings. Here’s what that earns me:
Year
APY
Interest
1
3.60%
$720
2
3.20%
$640
Total (2 years)
—
$1,360
Data source: Author’s calculations.
Now compare that with Wells Fargo:
Year
APY
Interest
1
0.01%
$2
2
0.01%
$2
Total (2 years)
—
$4
Data source: Author’s calculations.
That’s a $1,356 difference, just for moving my money to a better bank.
Lower balances still earn serious money
You don’t need a big balance to make this work. Even smaller amounts can grow fast in a high-yield account.
Switching accounts used to sound intimidating, but now it’s incredibly simple. Once you open a new HYSA, you can link it to your checking account, transfer funds, and start earning immediately.
Your money stays FDIC-insured up to $250,000, just like it was at Wells Fargo — only now it’s actually working for you.
If I’d switched years ago, I’d probably have several thousand dollars more by now. Don’t make the same mistake I did.
Don’t let your bank keep your interest
It takes less than 15 minutes to move your savings to a high-yield account that pays you what your money deserves.
Did JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon just raise a major red flag that investors need to pay attention to?
Before market open this morning, JPMorgan Chase(JPM -1.49%) published results for the third quarter. Performance for the period actually came in significantly better than the market had anticipated — with earnings per share of $5.07 on sales of $47.12 billion beating the average analyst estimate’s call for per-share earnings of $4.84 on sales of $45.4 billion.
On the other hand, the strong quarter also arrived with some commentary from CEO Jamie Dimon and other executives highlighting concerns for the financials sector and broader U.S. economy. Has JPMorgan just raised major warning flags that could signal powerful headwinds for other major banks?
Image source: Getty Images.
Jamie Dimon’s “cockroach” comments raise eyebrows
Speaking on losses his company experienced connected to its position in automotive credit supplier Tricolor Holdings, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged that the relationship was not the bank’s best moment. Taking it a step further, Dimon said, “When you see one cockroach, there’s probably more.”
Tricolor filed for bankruptcy protection last month, and the development has raised concerns about the broader U.S. consumer credit market. In the third quarter, JPMorgan took a $170 million impairment charge connected to loans it had extended to Tricolor. In JPMorgan’s third-quarter conference call, Dimon suggested that bankruptcies for Tricolor and other companies in the auto industry raised concerns about whether lending standards had become too lax.
Dimon’s comments about seeing cockroaches highlight the risk that issues facing the U.S. consumer credit market may be greater than what is visible on the surface. In other words, Tricolor’s bankruptcy may be the visible cockroach that signals a much larger nest of bugs that could present issues for the credit market and broader economy.
Dimon’s comments about Tricolor and consumer credit trends are also seemingly an acknowledgment that JPMorgan could face similar issues in the not-too-distant future. Perhaps more importantly, his comments raise the concern that other large U.S. banks could soon face similar issues that have impacts on the financials sector and U.S. macroeconomic health.
Between inflation levels that have remained relatively sticky, uncertainty surrounding the impact of tariffs, and some concerning indicators for U.S. economic growth, there are a lot of pressure points on the table for the broader macroeconomic picture right now. Shifting geopolitical dynamics with China and other rivals and trade partners present additional risk factors.
The U.S. economy is going through some historic shifts at the moment, and there are good reasons to think that some potentially serious fault lines exist in the consumer credit market right now. Dimon’s suggestion that Tricolor’s bankruptcy and other signs of weakness connected to the auto market signal real credit risks appears well founded, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see other major banks dealing with headwinds along those lines in the near future.
JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Rajesh and Akash share how Intellect supports banks and financial institutions in achieving full digital transformation, navigating global uncertainties, improving cost efficiency, and staying on schedule.
GF: What specific challenges do banks face in their digital transformation initiatives?
Rajesh Saxena: When you look at digital transformation and large-scale transformation, I think the most important aspect is that it has to be driven right from the top – the board, the management and the CEO have to be totally vested in this for it to be successful. Sometimes we see a misalignment from that perspective and that leads to problems.
The second thing is that it involves a lot of legacy platforms, interfaces with external ecosystem and data migration. That could sometimes be a challenge.
The third thing we have noticed is that, in many cases, when the bank or the financial institution starts the transformation, they are looking to adapt, but as we go through the process, they want the new system to look exactly the same as the old one, and that can create issues.
Finally, banks have to realise that large-scale transformations require a dedicated team. Sometimes they don’t have a team, and sometimes they do, but that team is also doing other activities. That inadequate focus can also result in challenges.
Rajesh Saxena, CEO of Intellect Consumer Banking
GF: Could you provide us with specific examples of how Intellect has been able to help banks overcome challenges and implement their digital strategies?
Rajesh Saxena; Our delivery framework has really improved over the years. Our starting point is design thinking, first principles thinking, and systemic thinking. This helps us really understand the customer’s requirement, both stated and, more importantly, his unstated needs. Then our products are built on the latest architecture. We call it eMACH.ai which stands for events, microservices, API, cloud and headless – with artificial intelligence built into it. This underlying architecture allows banks to have composability, extensibility and integration via APIs.
We have also realised that when you’re doing a large transformation, you need a team of people very close to the customer and in the same location. So our model is local delivery with a team on the ground, while our factory stays in India. Recently, we successfully launched several projects: we went live with the Central Bank of Seychelles, implementing our eMACH.ai Core Banking system; we partnered with Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt for the implementation of eMACH.ai DEP; and we collaborated with First Abu Dhabi Bank to implement our eMACH.ai Lending solution. Those are just a few projects where we’ve been able to deliver business impact to the bank.
GF : You spoke about unstated needs. How can you identify and target the clients’ unstated needs?
Rajesh Saxena: Understanding the unstated needs of clients and the industry is crucial and requires deep domain expertise combined with a focus on human-centered solutions. Design thinking provides a structured approach to asking the right questions, allowing us to uncover these hidden needs. At Intellect, we have established a 30,000-square-foot design center at our headquarters in Chennai, India. We invite our prospects and clients to participate in various design thinking sessions held in this space. During these sessions, we encourage discussions, analyze patterns and anti-patterns, and apply prioritization theories to identify both the stated and unstated needs of our clients.
GF: How can Intellect’s distinctive delivery model ensure that digital transformation projects get delivered on time and within budget?
Akash Gupta: We have built our delivery model around two approaches which we call space and speed. Speed stands for Sprint-based eMACH enabled delivery while Space stands for Secure, Predictable, Assured, Complete, eMACH enabled delivery. These methods give us flexibility to match the execution style to what the bank really needs. Large transformational projects typically go through the space methodology, whereas the quick delivery models, or digital ones, will go through a speed execution model. In the speed model, we are not starting from scratch; we have a ready suite of offerings for the customer with a very flexible architecture, the eMACH.ai. Hence the development efforts are lower and the costs are also very predictable.
Akash Gupta, Global Delivery Head of Intellect Consumer Banking
We also keep our governance very tight with monthly, sometimes fortnightly, steering committee meetings. These meetings take place between the customers’ teams and our teams to ensure good progress and it allows for risks to be visible very early in the program.
On the execution methodology, we follow Agile and DevOps, so there is continuous integration and development. It’s a sprint-based approach, so we get a view of the delivery very early in the program, and things take place in an accelerated manner.
A very good example of this was a few years ago when we helped a new African digital bank go live on our core platform in just 16 weeks. Usually, it takes a bank a year to a year and a half.
Finally, I would say we continuously monitor cost, schedule, effort and risk. This enforces discipline and helps us deliver projects in a timely manner and within budget. This ensures us to offer Delivery certainity to our customers from Time, Cost and quality perspective.
GF: You spoke about cost. How can Intellect manage cost controls while meeting overall project goals?
Akash Gupta: We are dealing with banks that must face global uncertainties, and to them, two things matter: cost visibility upfront and the support post “go-live”. So, we have a very transparent pricing methodology. We give the banks the pricing down to the feature level so they can choose and pick what they really need. They don’t have any hidden surprises.
But beyond pricing, really matters is the relationship. For us, it’s not just “deliver and walk away” and here I’ll give you an example: Last year we had a bank in Zimbabwe that was going to go live with our core banking transformation and four days before, the government announced a currency change. We were able to seamlessly migrate them to the new currency with no glitches. This is something even the established banks in that market were not able to achieve. It was like doing an open-heart surgery! So, clear pricing and long-term relationship-based support are what keep us going with those kinds of uncertainties.
GF: Tell us about the continuity of operations, any examples from the advanced markets?
Akash Gupta: One of the largest e-commerce companies in Europe, offers short-term loans to its online customers. The company utilized our core banking and lending solutions, enabling the business unit to implement a comprehensive Credit Lifecycle Management system. This system features fully automated processes from loan origination to maturity, instant updates for customers and partners, flexible product configuration, and a scalable AWS EKS and Fargate infrastructure for cost-effective, on-demand scaling.
During Black Friday, the company processes close to a million loans in a single day, highlighting the importance of having scalable solutions to meet such high demand. They have achieved success year after year with our solution. This is just one of many examples of how our customers across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas have transformed into secure, sustainable, and future-ready financial organizations.
On October 6, 2025, TruWealth Advisors, LLC disclosed in an SEC filing that it sold all 450,162 shares of Synovus Financial (SNV 0.77%), an estimated $23.30 million trade based on quarterly average pricing.
What happened
TruWealth Advisors, LLC reported a complete sale of its Synovus Financial holdings in its quarterly Form 13F, published October 6, 2025 (SEC filing). The fund sold 450,162 shares, with the transaction value estimated at $23.30 million. The position, previously 1.3% of fund AUM, was fully liquidated, and no shares remain as of the filing.
What else to know
The fund sold out of Synovus Financial.
Top holdings after the filing:
NYSEMKT:FBND: $124.17 million (6.3% of AUM)
NYSEMKT:VTI: $110.40 million (5.6% of AUM)
NYSEMKT:PYLD: $103.49 million (5.2% of AUM)
NYSEMKT:JAAA: $103.49 million (5.2% of AUM)
NASDAQ:BSCS: $90.20 million (4.6% of AUM)
As of Oct. 3, 2025, Synovus Financial shares were priced at $47.83, marking a 10.7% one-year gain and underperforming the S&P 500 by 7.8 percentage points.
Company overview
Metric
Value
Revenue (TTM)
$3.64 billion
Net income (TTM)
$784.71 million
Dividend yield
3.2%
Price (as of market close Oct. 7, 2025)
$47.83
Company snapshot
Synovous Financial:
Offers commercial and retail banking products, including treasury management, asset management, loans, deposit accounts, and investment services.
Operates as a regional bank holding company based in Columbus, Georgia.
Served individuals, small businesses, and corporate clients across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Leverages a diversified portfolio of banking and financial management services to address the needs of both retail and commercial clients in the southeastern United States.
Foolish take
While it may seem alarming to Synovus Financial shareholders to see TruWealth liquidating its position in the stock, the sale may not be an indictment of the bank’s operations.
Rather, Synovus plans to merge with Pinnacle Financial Partners (NASDAQ: PNFP) in a deal that should close in the first quarter of 2026.
The all-stock deal will have an exchange rate of .5237, implying a transaction value of $48.44 per Synovus share, based on Pinnacle’s current share price of around $92.
With Synovus already trading very close to this figure, TruWealth may not have seen enough upside in holding until next year. Or it simply may not have liked the look of the combined company.
For the bank itself, the new-look Pinnacle Financial Partners will not only become the fourth-largest regional bank in the Southeast, but also offer the best ten-year earnings growth rates among its peers in the area.
With the combined company set to have the best employee satisfaction, the highest customer net promoter score, and top-tier efficiency ratios compared to its peers, the new stock should be on banking-savvy investors’ radars.
Glossary
13F reportable assets: Securities holdings that institutional investment managers must disclose quarterly to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Form 13F.
AUM (Assets under management): The total market value of assets a fund or investment manager oversees on behalf of clients.
Fund liquidation: The process of selling all holdings in a particular investment, resulting in a zero balance for that position.
Dividend yield: Annual dividend income expressed as a percentage of the investment’s current price.
Regional bank holding company: A company that owns and controls banks operating primarily within a specific geographic region.
Treasury management: Banking services that help businesses manage cash flow, payments, and financial risk.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Form 13F: A quarterly report filed by institutional investment managers to disclose their equity holdings to the SEC.
Stake: The amount or percentage of ownership an investor or fund holds in a particular company.
Asset management: Professional management of investments such as stocks, bonds, and other assets for clients.
Josh Kohn-Lindquist has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Banks are joining private equity funds in issuing private credit to corporate borrowers—despite regulators’ concerns about unseen risks.
As private equity becomes an increasingly dominant force in backing corporate transactions, banks are taking an “If you can’t beat ’em, join’em” approach to the business of debt-capital financing.
Standing to benefit are corporate borrowers that otherwise cannot get traditional bank financing. But the intertwining of largely unregulated private credit and regulated bank lending—with the attendant risk of government bailouts of providers of both if their loans go bad—raises questions about threats to the financial system.
What once would have been considered an unlikely partnership is nevertheless liable to deepen, since the forces behind it have been building for some time.
The global industry of private credit, supplied mainly through closed-end credit funds sponsored by the same PE firms that back equity vehicles, has grown dramatically since the 2008 financial crisis. It boasts $2.8 trillion in assets under management (AUM) at last count, up from $200 billion in the early 2000s, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Correspondingly, bank lending fell from 44% of all US corporate borrowing in 2020 to 35% in 2023, an analysis by global consultancy Deloitte of Federal Reserve data found.
“Some private credit funds may have a degree of liquidity mismatch between their investments and the redemption terms of their investors.”
Lee Foulger, Bank of England
Use of private credit is expanding dramatically elsewhere as well. The BIS estimates that total outstanding private credit loan volumes have increased globally from around $100 billion in 2010 to over $1.2 trillion today, with more than 87% of the total originating in the US. Europe, excluding the UK, has accounted for about 6% of the total in recent years, and the UK about 3% to 4%, with Canada making up most of the rest. Assets in credit funds under management in Asia-Pacific total about $92.9 billion, up from $15.4 billion in 2014, according to research firm Preqin.
The appeal of private credit to corporate borrowers is clear: Many middle-market businesses, often backed by private equity sponsors, prefer private credit for its speed, flexibility, confidentiality, and reduced disclosure obligations compared to public bond markets available through broadly syndicated loans (BSLs). Those advantages are starting to attract larger, more creditworthy companies as well.
Banks, meanwhile, increasingly are lending to private credit funds for purposes of financing corporate borrowers, often those in the sponsors’ equity portfolios. Such lending often takes the form of so-called direct lending: commercial loans used by corporates for working capital or growth financing, that the industry contends traditional banks would not underwrite.
Bank lending to the private credit industry was estimated by the Federal Reserve in May 2023 at $200 billion, and the Fed acknowledged its estimate may have understated the actual amount. Fitch Ratings found that nine of the 10 banks with the largest loan balances to non-bank financial intermediaries of all kinds had $158 billion in loans to private credit funds or related vehicles at the end of last year. And the amount of outstanding loans extended by banks to private credit funds grew by 23% in the quarter ended June 30, compared with the previous quarter, versus only 1.4% for bank lending overall, Fitch reports.
The increasing importance of bank lending to private credit is well illustrated by Blackstone Private Credit Fund, one of the largest private credit funds in the world with over $50 billion in assets. Fully 98% of the $23.5 billion in secured credit commitment facilities arranged by its subsidiaries as of December 2022 were provided by 13 banks, the remaining amount from an insurance company. The outstanding amounts drawn on these facilities totaled some $14 billion, accounting for about 50% of the fund’s total debt liabilities.
A Deepening Collaboration
Of course, banks have long been involved in financing PE buyouts, such as Sycamore Partners buyout of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Two other PE firms, HPS Investment Partners and Ares Management, together provided $4.5 billion in direct lending for the deal while banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase put together financing proposals to work jointly with private credit, providing some access to the BSL market. Overall, the deal Sycamore completed in August is valued at $23.7 billion, with over $10 billion in committed financing coming from private credit funds and banks.
Increasingly, cooperation between banks and PE firms is taking the shape of direct lending to borrowers. PNC Financial and TCW Group, for instance, have partnered to create a lending platform for middle-market companies. And Citizens Financial Group has built out a unit focused on lending to PE funds.
Competition from banks is also growing. Standard Chartered and Goldman are readying their own units devoted to extending private credit while Morgan Stanley is launching funds to exploit private credit opportunities. The loans may not stay on banks’ balance sheets for long, as risk is transferred once investors’ capital is deployed. But just as the securitization market froze up in the inflationary post-Covid environment, so too may risk transfer when liquidity abruptly disappears.
Indeed, regulators are concerned that banks’ involvement in private credit, whether through cooperation or competition with PE, poses hidden risks to the financial system. Researchers from the Bank of England (BoE), the BIS, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the Federal Reserve, among others, have issued reports recently warning of the systemic financial risk these relationships may pose. Without greater visibility, the BoE, for one, has instructed banks to bolster their risk management in this arena.
“Some private credit funds may have a degree of liquidity mismatch between their investments and the redemption terms of their investors,” Lee Foulger, director of Financial Stability, Strategy, and Risk at the BoE, warned in a January 2024 speech to a middle-market finance conference sponsored by Deal Catalyst and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe.
Who’s More Creditworthy?
The industry counters such concerns by pointing out that credit funds are less likely to have loan defaults than in the BSL market as sponsors typically monitor borrowers’ performance more closely, use less leverage, adopt more conservative loan-to-value structures, and offer more flexible terms than banks, while locking up investors for long periods. In a recent report, “Understanding Private Credit,” Ares Management contends that its borrowers are more creditworthy than those in the public markets and are supported by more equity and that while the private credit market is still small in comparison, it is on its way to becoming even less leveraged while any funding mismatch will diminish as it grows.
Yet concerns remain, especially given the prospect of a challenging economic environment ahead.
Fitch, for instance, notes that the industry has yet to weather higher interest rates. As the ratings firm put it in a June report, “Sponsors and lenders had largely assumed a low base rate environment, as signaled by the Fed amid expectations of transitory inflation, when determining the optimal sizes of capital structures against revenue, EBITDA, and free cash-flow projections.”
As for liquidity risk, Fitch analyst Julie Solar notes that a growing number of credit funds are open-ended and subject to runs under difficult circumstances. Although she concedes that the number of such funds is still small, at least in the US, and many feature limits on redemptions, she adds that the issue bears watching. If many more open-end funds are created and rates rise significantly, she warns, “that is when you can start to have liquidity issues.”
In the eurozone, 42% of funds are open-ended, according to the ECB, although most of their investors are institutional and tend to have longer time horizons than retail investors.
Solar also raises concern about what she called “leverage upon leverage,” noting that business development companies—publicly traded vehicles that account for about half of private credit—as well as PE firms themselves are often significantly indebted to banks. Indeed, bank lending for buyouts may be an even greater risk, simply because it is so much larger than direct lending.
Banks’ involvement in credit funds is an added concern for regulators. A May 2024 financial stability report from the ECB pointed out, “Private markets still need to prove their resilience in an environment of higher interest rates as they have grown to a significant size only in the past decade.”
The industry counters that interest rates on many if not most of its loans float, eliminating the need for refinancing in a rising rate environment. But that’s likely to do nothing for the borrowers themselves.
“The floating-rate debt structure of private credit agreements makes them vulnerable to challenges around debt servicing and refinancing in a higher rate environment,” the BoE’s Foulger noted at the January 2024 conference.
A Federal Reserve Bank of Boston report in May acknowledged that banks’ losses could be mitigated in response to adverse conditions as most private credit debt is secured and among the funds’ most senior liabilities. Yet, the authors cautioned that “substantial losses could also occur in a less adverse scenario if the default correlation among the loans in [private credit] portfolios turned out to be higher than anticipated—that is, if a larger-than-expected number of [private credit] borrowers defaulted at the same time. Such tail risk may be underappreciated.”
Tyrese Gibson faces one charge of cruelty to animals stemming from a September incident in Fulton County, Ga., that left a neighbor’s 5-year-old dog mauled and dead.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office booked the 46-year-old singer-actor, a staple in the “Fast and Furious” film franchise, on Friday. He was released on a $20,000 surety bond. Attorney Gabe Banks said in a statement that Gibson voluntarily turned himself “to answer for a misdemeanor warrant.”
“Despite what others might say, throughout this entire process Mr. Gibson has cooperated fully with legal authorities and will continue to do so until this matter is resolved,” Banks said. “Mr. Gibson once again wants to extend his deepest condolences to the family who lost their dog and respectfully asks for privacy and understanding as this matter is handled through the appropriate legal channels.”
Police said earlier this week that Gibson failed to turn himself into law enforcement after an arrest warrant was issued stemming from a violent incident involving the actor’s Cane Corso dogs. On the night of Sept. 18, a neighbor of the “Morbius” star let her small spaniel out to her yard and returned five minutes later to find the dog had been attacked. The dog was rushed to a veterinary hospital but did not survive, police said.
The Cane Corsos were then seen at the house, where the owner called police, saying she was afraid to go outside. Animal control officers responded and were able to keep the dogs back while the neighbor went to her vehicle.
The arrest warrant issued for the movie star was part of an “ongoing issue” following multiple calls about the dogs in the last few months, Fulton County Police Capt. Nicole Dwyer said. Gibson received multiple warnings before the warrant was issued, and police also attempted to cite him before the attack, Dwyer said, but Gibson was not at his Atlanta home.
Police had a search warrant for Gibson’s property on Sept. 22, but the actor and the dogs were not there.
In a statement shared to the actor’s Instagram page on Wednesday, Gibson and Banks expressed condolences to the family “who lost their beloved dog in this tragic incident.” The “Transformers” and “Baby Boy” star said his heart “is truly broken,” the note said, and that “he has been “praying for the family constantly, hoping they may one day find it in their hearts to forgive him.”
The statement said that the attack occurred while Gibson, who “accepts full responsibility for his dogs,” was out of town. The actor has since rehomed the two adult dogs and their three puppies, the statement said, adding “the liability of keeping them was simply too great.”
Gibson also issued a personal statement, describing his passion for dogs and declaring that his animals have “never been trained to harm.” He said he has been in Los Angeles with family, mourning the death of his father.
“Please know that I am praying for you, grieving with you, and will continue to face this tragedy with honesty, responsibility, and compassion,” he added.
In another Instagram statement shared Tuesday, Banks explained that Gibson’s decision to bring the Cane Corso dogs into his home was for security against stalkers who had been “randomly showing up at his home” in recent years. Banks said that the dogs “never harmed a child, a person, or another dog” until the September incident.
Gibson said Tuesday: “I had no idea I would ever wake up to this nightmare, and I know the family must feel the same way. To them, please know that my heart is broken for you. I am praying for your healing and for your beloved pet, who never deserved this. I remain committed to facing this matter with honesty, responsibility, and compassion.”
The United States Supreme Court says it will hear arguments over President Donald Trump’s efforts to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her post. The court’s announcement means Cook will stay in the job for now.
The high court announced the decision on Wednesday.
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The White House has been trying to remove Cook in the first-ever bid by a president to fire a Fed official, an unprecedented challenge to central bank independence.
The justices declined to immediately decide a Department of Justice request to put on hold a judge’s order temporarily blocking the Republican president from removing Cook, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, while litigation over the termination continues in a lower court.
The justices said they would hear the case in January.
In creating the Fed in 1913, Congress passed a law called the Federal Reserve Act, which included provisions to shield the central bank from political interference, such as allowing governors to be removed by a president only “for cause”, although the law does not define the term or establish procedures for removal. The law has never been tested in court.
Washington, DC-based US District Judge Jia Cobb on September 9 ruled that Trump’s claims that Cook committed mortgage fraud before taking office, which Cook denies, likely were not sufficient grounds for removal under the Federal Reserve Act.
Trump on August 25 said he was removing Cook from the Fed’s Board of Governors, citing allegations that before joining the central bank in 2022, she falsified records to obtain favourable terms on a mortgage. Her term is set to expire in 2038.
Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed governor, sued Trump soon after. Cook has said the claims made by Trump against her did not give the president the legal authority to remove her and were a pretext to fire her for her monetary policy stance.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a 2-1 ruling on September 15 denied the administration’s request to put Cobb’s order on hold.
Expansive view of presidential powers
In a series of decisions in recent months, the Supreme Court has allowed Trump to remove members of various federal agencies that Congress had established as independent from direct presidential control despite similar job protections for those posts. The decisions suggest that the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, may be ready to jettison a key 1935 precedent that preserved these protections in a case that involved the US Federal Trade Commission.
But the court has signalled that it could treat the Fed as distinct from other executive branch agencies, noting in May in a case involving Trump’s dismissal of two Democratic members of federal labour boards that the Fed “is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity” with a singular historical tradition.
Trump’s bid to fire Cook reflects the expansive view of presidential power he has asserted since returning to office in January. As long as the president identifies a cause for removal, Cook’s sacking is within his “unreviewable discretion”, the Department of Justice said in a September 18 filing to the Supreme Court.
“Put simply, the President may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself – and refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations,” the filing stated.
Cook’s lawyers told the Supreme Court on September 25 that granting Trump’s request, “would eviscerate the Federal Reserve’s longstanding independence, upend financial markets and create a blueprint for future presidents to direct monetary policy based on their political agendas and election calendars”.
A group of 18 former US Federal Reserve officials, Treasury secretaries and other top economic officials who served under presidents from both parties also urged the Supreme Court not to let Trump fire Cook.
The group included the past three Fed chairs, Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan. In a brief to the court, they wrote that allowing this dismissal would threaten the Fed’s independence and erode public confidence in it.
Cook took part in the Fed’s highly anticipated two-day meeting in Washington, DC, in September, at which the central bank decided to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point as policymakers responded to concerns about weakness in the job market. Cook was among those voting in favour of the cut.
Pressure on Fed
Concerns about the Fed’s independence from the White House in setting monetary policy could have a ripple effect throughout the global economy.
The case has ramifications for the Fed’s ability to set interest rates without regard to the wishes of politicians, widely seen as critical to any central bank’s ability to function independently and carry out tasks such as keeping inflation under control.
Trump this year has demanded that the Fed cut rates aggressively, berating Fed Chair Jerome Powell for his stewardship over monetary policy as the central bank focused on fighting inflation. Trump has called Powell a “numbskull,” “incompetent” and a “stubborn moron”.
North American banks are having difficulties keeping up with the evolutionary pace in payments.
Technological innovation is transforming commercial payments across North America, greatly affecting major financial institutions in the US and Canada. Celent, a fintech research and advisory firm and part of data analytics consultancy GlobalData, shared a report on this topic at Sibos on Tuesday, with some unexpected conclusions.
The survey, conducted over the summer with a majority of the top 20 banks in the US and Canada, revealed that no single bank excels in all areas of payments. Moreover, the definition of “best” varies depending on the client and the context. What emerged as more important than trying to do “everything” in payments was focusing on what matters most to clients.
The pace and breadth of change in the payments space is so intense that some banks described themselves as “drowning in change.” However, this environment also presents significant opportunities. As the authors of the report emphasize, what matters most is not a bank’s size, but its attitude. Smaller banks, in particular, often outperform their larger counterparts simply because they are more willing to embrace change.
Each bank surveyed reported taking a unique approach to payments, with differentiation becoming a key competitive factor. Many respondents noted that only the largest banks had the resources—both human and financial—to innovate at scale. Yet, even deep pockets don’t guarantee success.
Celent’s analysts argue that Banks must differentiate their payment offerings or risk falling irreversibly behind. The desire for change outweighs available budgets—innovation stems more from mindset than money. A unified, client-centered goal must drive all decisions in the payments domain.
In practice, this has led some institutions to shift from building products first and marketing them later, to starting with client and industry research and then designing solutions to meet those needs. This represents a significant shift in product management, placing the client at the center of the innovation process. The goal is not only to become a service provider, but a partner and advisor—delivering what’s best for the client, not just for the bank.
Looking ahead, while significant changes are expected in areas such as CBDCs, stablecoins, ACH systems, and payment infrastructure, the survey identified fraud and risk management as the top priority for 43% of the banks surveyed. This is followed by 29% that are focused on improving operations and transforming processing infrastructure. Additionally, about 50% of banks anticipate a full system replacement in areas such as payment hubs, cross-border payments, payment operations, and financial crime prevention.
More than 30 of the largest banks worldwide join in the design, development, and testing of the new offering, SWIFT announced at the Sibos conference.
Big news at this year’s Sibos conference in Frankfurt came right at the opening on Monday. SWIFT announced it would add a shared blockchain-based ledger to its infrastructure, marking a groundbreaking move to accelerate and expand the advantages of digital finance across more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
The initial focus will be on real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments, and the financial messaging cooperative creates a network connecting over 11,000 banks across more than 200 countries. The launch date hasn’t been announced, but once implemented, this ledger will make cross-border payments less expensive worldwide.
SWIFT and more than 30 leading financial institutions from 16 countries worldwide, including Bank of America, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citi, DBS, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, MUFG, OCBC, Royal Bank of Canada, Societe Generale – FORGE, Standard Chartered, and TD Bank, are collaborating on the project. Financial institutions will provide feedback on the ledger’s design, followed by further development and testing.
Initially, SWIFT will collaborate with blockchain software developer Consensys on a conceptual prototype of the ledger, which will support interoperability across current and emerging systems. The model employs the parallel tracks of “upgrading existing rails while creating future digital rails to maximize infrastructure choice for the industry.”
The announcement is significant for several reasons: it demonstrates that SWIFT is poised to leverage the unique strengths of its network for the launch of a global blockchain ledger, and it is backed by most major global banks worldwide. It is also a clear sign to all the various proprietary blockchain ledgers launched by other institutions that today’s plan is the result of a collective effort and will bridge and coordinate what each financial institution has done and is doing in this area.
“Our track record of developing instant cross-border payment capabilities and our early foray into blockchain-based payment solutions enable DBS to meaningfully support SWIFT’s digital shared ledger initiative,” said Lim Soon Chong, Group Head of Global Transaction Services at DBS Bank. “We believe blockchain technology can usher in the next generation of ‘always-on’ and ‘smarter’ financial services. SWIFT’s initiative goes a step further – it is interoperable with traditional correspondent banking rails, has a high transaction capacity within a secure environment, and is accessible by SWIFT’s global banking network. These characteristics are critical in supporting broad-based reach and adoption, and have the potential to form the backbone of a resilient and future-ready global financial infrastructure.”
The Federal Reserve just cut interest rates for the first time this year. Here’s how regional banks stand to benefit.
On Sept. 18, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25%. It was the central bank’s first interest rate cut since December, as it looks to balance both sides of its dual mandate to achieve both stable prices and maximum employment.
Interest rate cuts benefit companies with more debt, including small-cap stocks. One value play that investors might be overlooking is regional banks. Here’s why.
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How interest rate cuts could benefit regional banks
Regional banks can benefit from interest rate cuts because their deposit costs typically adjust downward faster than loan yields. Most deposits are short-term and rate-sensitive, while many loans are fixed or repriced more slowly. This timing gap can boost net interest margins, easing pressure from prior rate hikes.
Lower rates also stimulate borrowing demand, boosting loan growth and fee income. Together, these dynamics can boost profitability and capital flexibility for regional banks during easing cycles. The primary beneficiaries are banks with strong deposit franchises, sensitivity to interest rates, and balance sheets heavily tilted toward lending.
PNC Financial is one regional bank with a relatively low deposit beta, supported by a stable, low-cost funding base and broad geographic reach, with a balance sheet tilted toward lending. By contrast, more asset-sensitive peers such as Zions Bancorp and KeyCorp, whose earnings were pressured by higher deposit costs in the rising rate environment, could see outsized margin recovery if funding cost sensitivity eases with rate cuts.
How investors could play the rebound
For investors, rate cuts create an opportunity in regional banks. As funding costs ease faster than loan yields, margins expand, credit demand rises, and earnings improve.
With valuations still compressed from pressures that emerged during the regional bank crisis a couple of years ago, regionals could deliver solid upside as monetary policy becomes a tailwind. For those interested, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF(KRE -1.25%) is one way to play the rebound across a diverse group of over 140+ regional bank stocks.
Courtney Carlsen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
