Against a backdrop of old-school Miami cool, the world's biggest banks convened at Sibos to bask in the spotlight.
As financial leaders gathered at the Sibos conference on Wednesday for Global Finance’s 2026 Treasury and Cash Management Awards ceremony, the elegant setting offered a clear nod to old Miami.
The Fontainebleau, where Global Finance presented the awards, is indelibly associated with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack, whose photos adorn the hotel’s walls, a nod to a bygone era when Miami Beach was a playground for entertainers, celebrities, and those who knew how to put on a show.
The show Global Finance put on was different, but no less memorable to the award winners who attended.
More than 150 banking executives from around the world gathered to recognize something considerably less glamorous yet far more essential to the global economy: the financial infrastructure that enables companies to move money, manage liquidity, make payments, and navigate foreign exchange.
Global Finance’s awards ceremony coincided with Swift’s annual Sibos event, which drew more than 100 financial institutions and 10,000 attendees from around the world to the nearby Miami Beach Convention Center.
There was plenty to celebrate at The Fontainebleau on Wednesday.
Winners From Across the World
Citi and its business units collected nine awards, more than any other bank represented at the ceremony. Among them were three marquee honors: Best Treasury FX Services, Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management, and Best Bank for Payments.
The banking giant’s haul was part of a ceremony that recognized more than 60 banks and handed out 156 awards across countries and regions.
Singapore’s DBS Bank followed with eight awards, including three country honors and four Asia-Pacific awards spanning liquidity management, cross-border payments, payments and financial institutions, and transaction banking.
BNY and ING each collected seven. BNY took the title of World’s Best Bank for Cash Management back to New York, while ING was recognized across multiple markets, reflecting the increasingly regional and global nature of transaction banking.
“We’ve worked very hard to complete our offerings throughout Europe and Central-Eastern Europe, specifically, and we’re thrilled to accept this award,” Tibor Bartel, head of transaction services at ING Americas, told Global Finance after the ceremony.
The formula, he said, is straightforward: keep investing, keep talking to clients, and keep making sure the bank’s offerings reflect their needs.
That theme surfaced repeatedly during the ceremony.
Dennis Gada, executive vice president and global head of banking and financial services at Infosys, which partnered with Global Finance and tabulated the results, put it more directly in his opening remarks.
“It’s not about who has the biggest balance sheet; it’s about who’s actually building the infrastructure that makes modern treasury possible,” Gada told the audience. “The institutions we are recognizing today are the ones that are getting it right.”
Increasingly, transaction banking has become less about the products that customers see and more about the infrastructure operating behind them.
Standard Bank collected six awards; BBVA took five; six banks received four each; three received three; 12 received two; and 48 banks received one.
But one award stood alone.
Bank of America
Of the 156 awards presented, Bank of America took the crowning honor: Global Finance’s World’s Best Bank for Transaction Banking.
Marcello Moussalli, head of transaction banking for Latin America, accepted the award. In a video interview after the ceremony, he attributed the bank’s success to three things: listening to clients, making effective use of its global platform, and combining that scale with local expertise.
“Putting all of that together makes this strength of our franchise that allows us to implement new solution liquidity, payments, and innovate in all different areas of the bank,” he said.
The ceremony ended much as it had begun—with a reminder that banking, like Miami itself, is an old-world institution adapting to the modern world.
Meanwhile, outside the Fontainebleau, the sky had opened up.
The rain that had begun during the ceremony intensified into howling gales and driving rain as executives filed out of the hotel, many carrying the glass plaques they had come to collect from cities across the globe: New York, Singapore, Johannesburg, Madrid, and dozens of other financial centers.
Inside, the awards celebrated the institutions that make global commerce possible.
Outside, Miami’s weather offered an apt metaphor for the environment in which those institutions operate: unpredictable, volatile, and occasionally coming down all at once.
The Rat Pack may have left the building decades ago. But for one morning in Miami Beach, the Fontainebleau was still putting on a show, only this time the stars were the banks behind the world’s financial well-being.
Read more of Global Finance’s coverage of Sibos 2026.
Paul Curcio is the editor of Global Finance Magazine. Contact him at paul.curcio@gfmag.com.
