On Dec 6th, I wrote a post titled The Best Banks of the World 2008 in my TFS site which discussed the top banks in the world. The Banker Magazine presented awards to the best banks in each individual country. In this post let me mention a few banks that won the awards in countries they operate in other than their own home country. Many of the multi-national banks today have huge presence in other countries and in some places they are better than the local domestic banks. The Banker magazine selected these banks based on many factors like growth,technology, strategy and a questionnaire that banks were asked to submit.1. Argentina – The Best Bank in Argentina is Banco Santander Rio. This bank is a subsidiary of one of the largest banks in Spain – Banco Santander (STD). Banco Santander Rio used to be called “Banco RÃo”.STD has huge presence in other Latin American countries like Brazil, Mexico, Chile, etc. as well but they were beaten by other banks in those countries.
2. Belize – The Best Bank in Belize is ScotiaBank Belize. This bank is a unit of The Bank of Novo Scotia (BNS) of Canada. BNS is the only Canadian bank to that has a significant interest in Latin American banking. In addition to winning the award, ScotiaBank won the top bank award in the following countries as well:
- Costa Rica – ScotiaBank
- Guyana – ScotiaBank
- Turks & Caicos – ScotiaBank
- Canada – ScotiaBank
So Scotia Bank of Canada won the award in 4 countries other than Canada.
3. South Africa – The Best Bank is Standard Bank Group. Recently Business Week had an article which talked about how South African companies excel in growing in other African countries. Specifically they mentioned the Standard Bank. It won the award for the best bank in the following countries also:
- Malawi
- Namibia
- Swaziland
- Botswana
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Tanzania
- Zimbabwe
4. Colombia – The Best Bank is BBV Colombia. This bank is a subsidiary of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria(BBV) of Spain. BBVA also won the award for Paraguay and Venezuela as well. However in its home country Spain, the best bank award went to Banco Santander.
