World’s Best Investment Banks 2025: Global And Country Winners

Against the backdrop of a thriving year for global stock markets and increased activity in the debt spectrum, Bank of America (BofA) Securities managed to catapult its global operations to capture 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 main areas of operations: North America, Latin America, and Europe, where the bank controlled a commanding 8.3%, 9%, and 4.4% of the total investment banking fees, respectively. As a result, the bank’s revenue for the full year jumped to nearly $5.5 billion, according to Dealogic data, representing around 6.2% of the global investment banking market.

BofA also scored big on M&A despite the somewhat subdued activity, serving as the lead financial adviser for the buy side in the $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines by Alaska Air, completed in September 2024. The bank also acted as the sole financial adviser for the buy side on Keurig Dr Pepper’s $990 billion acquisition of energy beverage company GHOST.            —Thomas Monteiro

Morgan Stanley solidified its status as the top global IPO bookrunner, leading the industry with over $7 billion in deal value across 65 IPOs, according to Dealogic. The firm guided several high-profile companies to successful public market debuts across diverse sectors.

Notable transactions included Scottsdale, Arizona-based aircraft maintenance services provider StandardAero’s $1.44 billion IPO in September, which priced above expectations; and Irvine, California-based Ingram Micro’s October IPO, which raised $409.2 million to support debt reduction. Morgan Stanley also played a critical role in Mexico City–based BBB Foods’ February IPO, helping raise $589 million. Morgan Stanley’s active involvement in Japan’s IPO landscape, which saw a 45% uptick compared to 2023, is also noteworthy. With Nomura, Morgan Stanley handled the IPO of Tokyo computer memory manufacturer Kioxia, which had an indicative market value of about 750 billion yen (about $5.1 billion). By consistently securing key mandates and driving strong market performances, Morgan Stanley reinforced its position as a dominant force in the investment banking and capital markets arena.          —Anthony Noto

Amid a year filled with ups and downs for emerging market economic activity, Itaú BBA leveraged its suite of offerings to help sustain the region’s long-term economic dynamism. As the broad nearshoring trend coincided with a pause in the ongoing cycles of interest rate cuts in the region, primarily due to rebounding inflation, securing the best deals took rare expe-rtise. Among the year’s top deals in emerging markets, Itaú BBA acted as the global coordinator for the $2.7 billion privatization of water and sanitation company Sabesp, the largest sanitation offering in Brazil’s history and the third-largest globally in 2024. The bank also managed Mallplaza’s $326 million capital increase, one of the region’s top follow-on offerings of the year. In M&A, Itaú BBA advised on the $300 million sale of 22 hotels in Brazil to BTG Pactual and on Cantu’s merger with GP Pneus, valued at about $139 million.      —TM

A fog of trepidation is spreading across most frontier economies. US President Donald Trump’s decisions to instigate tariff wars, tussle with the Federal Reserve over interest rates, and freeze foreign funding are bound to reverberate across most countries. While it’s hard to predict how damaging the impacts will be, companies in frontier markets must be creative in order to meet their financing needs.

KFH Capital remains dedicated to offering innovative capital solutions. Last year, the Kuwaiti company achieved a remarkable milestone, closing 22 transactions worth $24 billion. This was a significant increase from 12 transactions, valued at $7 billion, in 2023. A leading Islamic investment house, focused mainly on Arab countries, KFH Capital is a powerhouse in sukuk issuances. In 2024, it advised 16 clients, ranking high on the Bloomberg League Table. A differentiating edge for KFH Capital is innovation. Last year, it introduced the Wakala/Murabaha Sukuk structure, which is attracting interest from many sovereign wealth funds. —John Njiraini

With persistently high rates pressuring the ESG market, global sustainable-bond issuances remained nearly flat last year at about $1 trillion, according to Moody’s. The agency expects them to stay at about the same level in 2025. Despite this challenging backdrop, the Societe Generale (SocGen), the French giant and global leader in ESG, found growth in several markets outside the usual Europe-North America axis.

Among the bank’s main deals last year, in January it acted as a joint bookrunner for Chile’s record-breaking $1.7 billion social bond. Just one month later, in a similar offering, the bank served as joint bookrunner for Romania’s €2 billion (about $2.2 billion) green bond issue.

SocGen acted as a joint bookrunner on Mizuho Financial Group’s groundbreaking $1.3 billion green bond issuance in Japan. Again in the APAC region, the bank participated in the $1.5 billion green bond issued by Australia’s National Broadband Network. The bank was also a joint bookrunner on the French social welfare agency CADES’  landmark €4 billion social bond. —TM

Despite remaining wholly committed to sustaining vital infrastructure and business lines in Ukraine last year amid its ongoing war with Russia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) did not lose sight of its commitment to supporting countries and businesses in their long-term sustainable-energy transition goals. With key participation on both fronts, the bank poured in a record-breaking $17.2 billion in 2024, a massive 26% year-on-year incerease.

As underlined by EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso, it was not solely in the numbers but also the quality that improved, with directed investments transforming the business outlook in places like Moldova, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan—as well as in Ukraine. “Demand for our unique business model of financing, combined with policy advice, grows with every year that passes,” Renaud-Basso said in January. Among the countries benefiting most from EBRD’s targeted investments, Kazakhstan received close to $1 billion in funds. The bank also deployed over €2 billion (about $2.16 billion) in Ukraine, mostly via private partnerships.        —TM

With more than $3.2 billion invested last year to boost its already excellent technological offering, BBVA kept pushing the investment banking envelope in both financial offerings and client-facing structure, with a laser-sharp focus on artificial intelligence. Among the Spanish giant’s main initiatives in the field was the purchase of 3,000 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses now being utilized to enhance customer assistance and offerings, particularly in legal queries and in-app improvements.

The Madrid-based bank rolled out digital infrastructure improvements, facilitating the onboarding of new clients and the day-to-day operation of its existing customer base. For the former, BBVA’s new end-to-end digital onboarding for business customers has driven around 30% of new customer acquisitions since launch. For the latter, the bank significantly improved its digital cash management capabilities, reducing customer costs by migrating over-the-counter branch transactions to electronic transactions that function seamlessly 24/7. —TM

In a year when Latin American markets proved more volatile than usual, BTG Pactual’s consistent efforts in expanding its first-class suite of offerings proved key to clients looking for opportunities to diversify. Given the growing performance disparity between Latin American and US markets, the São Paulo–based bank opened new offices in New York and Luxembourg, increasing the geographical reach of its offerings. Among Banco BTG Pactual’s new products was a US Treasury and corporate bond portfolio, directly traded in US dollars. The offering helps complement a broader strategy that provides customers with direct access to US equities in dollar terms. The bank also increased its cryptocurrency offering by listing its dollar-pegged BTG Dol stablecoin on the Crypto.com exchange. The move allows clients to trade BTG Dol directly with leading global cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum.  —TM