Best Financial Institution Foreign Exchange Awards 2019: A Bumpy Ride In Fracturing Markets

Methodology

Global Financeselects the World’s Best Foreign Exchange Providers based on objective factors including transaction volume, market share, competitive pricing, and global coverage, as detailed in public company documents and media reports.

Our criteria also include subjective factors such as customer service and technological innovation, drawing on input from industry analysts, surveys, corporate executives, and technology experts. Decisions are also informed by provider submissions

BEST GLOBAL FOREIGN EXCHANGE BANK

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

Excellence in foreign-exchange (FX) banking requires excellent platforms and products, outstanding people and global reach. Citi trades more than 140 currencies from FX desks in 83 countries and has the broadest range of clients of any FX bank. Its Citi Velocity platform is fast and easy to use and has been awarded 11 patents. Another Citi platform allows corporate clients to track cash flow and balance-sheet exposure in various currencies across their worldwide subsidiaries, while Citi’s in-house systems help manage the documentation required for FX transactions in many emerging markets.

BEST FX PROVIDER FOR CORPORATES

Societe Generale

Societe Generale offers corporate solutions aimed at improving management of FX and commodity risks. One of the most popular is a structured product leveraging the bank’s expertise in cash FX, derivatives and indices; another is a cross-asset platform, One Corp, which analyzes and designs solutions benchmarked against the client’s key competitors. SG also delivers widely praised currency-hedging solutions. MyHedge, a digital interface with the bank’s proprietary risk systems, helps clients track and monitor the efficiency of their hedges. The bank also has a sector focus for risk advisory connected to its corporate-finance expertise.

BEST FX PROVIDER FOR EMERGING MARKETS CURRENCIES

Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered Bank is a leader in emerging-market, illiquid and restricted currencies. The bank has FX experts positioned in 39 countries, actively trades more than 100 currencies and receives high marks in customer satisfaction. Standard Chartered leads in the introduction of onshore and offshore FX-option products in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and is also active in Latin America and Eastern Europe. The bank’s cross-currency savvy has distinguished it as the go-to financier for China’s Belt and Road Initiative; last year it was involved in more than 50 Chinese outbound deals around the world linked to Belt and Road.

BEST LIQUIDITY PROVIDER

State Street

Liquidity risk is a major concern of executives in the investment industry. While this creates opportunities for new nonbank providers to enter the marketplace, one competitor that has steadily increased its role in recent years is hardly a newcomer. State Street is a leading provider of financial services to institutional investors, operating in more than 100 markets with $33.9 trillion in assets under management. Its FX Connect is a leading multidealer platform, helping streamline global operations across multiple portfolios and providing access to liquidity from more than 65 providers in more than 140 currencies. State Street’s other FX platform, Currenex, a comprehensive trading solution for corporate treasurers, provides high-performance technology and access to disclosed and undisclosed liquidity together on a single screen.

NORTH AMERICA

Citi

Citi continues to maintain a strong share of the highly competitive North American market. Its leading-edge platforms use the latest technology to provide quick, accurate and competitive pricing; and its vast global scope enables it to deliver a wide range of market-leading FX products and services. Citi has evolved with the market and regulatory landscape, improving productivity and efficiency. On the web and through mobile and trading applications, clients can find Citi research, commentary, and proprietary data and analytics, execute fast FX trades and access the bank’s sophisticated post-trade analysis tools.

LATIN AMERICA

BBVA

BBVA is a leading foreign-exchange bank in Spain and Latin America, where it has trading desks in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina. BBVA has banking operations in many emerging markets, including some outside Latin America, and connects FX activity in those regions with major distribution hubs including London and New York. BBVA provides coverage of all key currencies in both simple and structured products, and clients value these along with the bank’s tailored solutions and deep knowledge of local markets.

WESTERN EUROPE

HSBC

HSBC is a leading FX market maker with a global footprint and special expertise in Western Europe, competing both on price and on FX risk analysis and research. In the past year, the bank has separated its foreign-exchange and commodities businesses from its global-markets corporate businesses. Its Evolve platform, which serves 6,000 clients in 35 countries, allows corporate treasurers to view FX exposures and hedges across their business and provides customizable user tools with a wide range of optional features.

CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE

Societe Generale

Societe Generale is present in 14 CEE countries, where its FX volumes have grown rapidly in the past year. The bank provides full FX-product capabilities in the five largest markets: Russia (where it owns Rosbank), Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. Altogether, SG maintains 2,500 branches in the region. Its FX solutions give corporate clients the ability to manage both day-to-day operations and adapt to changes they may face in their sector.

ASIA-PACIFIC

DBS Bank

Singapore-based DBS Bank is a major interbank market participant in China and other key Asian markets, including South Korea, Taiwan, India and Indonesia. Thanks to its leading market position and extensive network, DBS offers one of the most competitive pricings in Singapore dollar-related crosses. Its DealOnline platform offers more than 40 currency pairings in spots, forwards, swaps and Asian nondeliverable forwards. DBS also provides a corporate multicurrency account for small to medium-size enterprises. Its Corporate Multi-Currency Account helps small businesses transact and manage up to 13 currencies in separate e-wallets in a single account.

Societe Generale

Societe Generale is present in 14 CEE countries, where its FX volumes have grown rapidly in the past year. The bank provides full FX-product capabilities in the five largest markets: Russia (where it owns Rosbank), Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. Altogether, SG maintains 2,500 branches in the region. Its FX solutions give corporate clients the ability to manage both day-to-day operations and adapt to changes they may face in their sector.

ASIA-PACIFIC

DBS Bank

Singapore-based DBS Bank is a major interbank market participant in China and other key Asian markets, including South Korea, Taiwan, India and Indonesia. Thanks to its leading market position and extensive network, DBS offers one of the most competitive pricings in Singapore dollar-related crosses. Its DealOnline platform offers more than 40 currency pairings in spots, forwards, swaps and Asian nondeliverable forwards. DBS also provides a corporate multicurrency account for small to medium-size enterprises. Its Corporate Multi-Currency Account helps small businesses transact and manage up to 13 currencies in separate e-wallets in a single account.

FX RESEARCH

BNY Mellon

Research is a crucial element of BNY Mellon’s revamped FX capabilities. Relaunched as The Aerial View, the bank’s FX research is based on a top-down macroeconomic approach that assists clients in identifying and predicting themes underpinning price moves in the world’s capital markets. Supplementing it is BNY Mellon’s proprietary iFlow data, which provides perspective on capital allocation across international financial markets and asset classes. The data is based on fund flows drawn from BNY Mellon’s more than $33 trillion in assets under custody or administration.

FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS

BNP Paribas

Paris-based BNP Paribas has an onshore presence in 80 countries. Its GlobalMarkets portal offers access to the bank’s full range of information, research and analysis, including the latest market intelligence and trading ideas from its analysts, strategists and economists. Desktop alerts appear when newly published research meets preselected criteria. GlobalMarkets is integrated into Cortex, the bank’s global FX platform for cross-asset trading tools and services.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs is King of the Hill in technical analysis, which relies heavily on Elliott wave analysis. Market cycles and trends are identified based on highs and lows in prices and related investor psychology. Goldman notifies currency traders of the next level to watch for and whether or not the market is entering a corrective phase or a powerful “fifth wave.”

FORECASTS

CIBC Capital Markets

CIBC has been one of the most successful forecasters for Group-of-10 currencies in recent years. The Canadian bank relies on a mix of macroeconomic fundamentals and analysis of political risks to produce its prognostications. CIBC’s products range from basic FX to customized hedging and risk-management strategies. The bank also offers 24-hour liquidity in G-30 and selected emerging-market currencies.

BEST BANK PLATFORM (OVERALL)

Citi Velocity

Citi Velocity, the recipient of 11 patents, is this year’s winner based on its design, usability and advanced navigational features that help a busy FX trader keep track of a wealth of trades and market information simultaneously. An analysis dashboard provides key client information and analytics alongside trading status. Citi Velocity Mobile offers tradable pricing for $100 million in currency transactions, including forward and futures orders, from the customer’s mobile phone.

The platform offers cross-asset access to equities, rates, credit, commodities, securitized municipals and research, along with emerging-market currencies. Various asset classes are grouped together on a single desktop; trading is simple, fast and seamless; and velocity is measured in milliseconds.

MOST INNOVATIVE BANK PLATFORM

Shinhan SOL

Shinhan SOL lets Shinhan Bank customers freely exchange 43 currencies at a preferred rate. The South Korean bank created the mobile platform by combining six bank apps into one, with a focus on customer experience and convenience. A remittance service offered through SOL is its most competitive feature. Advanced algorithms reduce the time and cost of remittances while complying fully with international regulations; customers simply choose the currency, amount and destination.

BEST PLATFORM FOR CORPORATIONS

Sberbank Markets

Sberbank Markets, developed by Sberbank of Russia, offers clients quick access to foreign-exchange products. The self-service FX trading platform provides currency conversion, FX swaps, FX forwards and deposits. Its centralized pricing core is connected to the Moscow Exchange and a number of international liquidity providers. Sberbank Markets aggregates the liquidity of Sberbank with the liquidity from the external markets and delivers real-time streaming pricing across 30 currency pairs for spot trading and derivatives, enabling the bank to handle large transactions with low market impact.

BEST EXECUTION ALGORITHMS

Societe Generale

An algorithm is a set of “if, then” rules enabling a computer to complete a predefined task without human intervention. Algorithmic execution strategies aim to meet an objective with each transaction, such as reduced market impact or speed of execution. Societe Generale’s FX algorithmic execution tool allows customers to trade directly in the market anonymously, through sophisticated order routing, to numerous diverse liquidity pools.

BEST TRANSACTION COST ANALYSIS

BNP Paribas

Meeting best-execution requirements is a critical component of the investor-protection standards under the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). In the search for best execution, currency traders need to be able to understand the performance of each venue and the impact of routing behavior, not just find the lowest price. BNP Paribas partnered with BestX, a London-based fintech company and specialist provider in FX transaction-cost analysis, to allow its clients to judge the quality of their currency-trade execution against a variety of benchmarks. BestX provides a level, standardized playing field across which clients can assess and compare the quality of execution they receive.

BEST BIG-PICTURE VIEW OF POSITIONS

Citi Velocity Command Centre

Command Centre is designed to provide clients with visibility of, and control over, their traders’ access to Citi Velocity. Clients can view firmwide accounts and net open position limits. Trading permission can be varied for different products, such as forwards and nondeliverable options. Electronic and desk-watched orders left with Citi through any e-channel are visible based on need-to-know principles and sorted by proximity to market.

The platform also helps keep clients informed and their skills sharp: An FX Overview page delivers research, market commentary and technical analysis most relevant to the client side by side with the trading display.

BEST END-TO-END PROCESSING

J.P. Morgan’s Execute

Execute, on J.P. Morgan Markets, lets users trade a breadth of orders across 300-plus currency pairs, leveraging the bank’s diverse order flows and intelligent order routing with direct access to spot trading on 14 electronic communication networks. The platform covers trading of currencies, commodities and interest-rate products.