Citibank Taiwan Ltd (台灣花旗) last week won Best Investment Bank in Asiamoney’s Best Bank Awards for Taiwan.

Citibank also won Best International Bank in Taiwan and Best International Investment Bank in Taiwan in the FinanceAsia Country Awards in late May.

It is the 26th consecutive year Citi won the Best International Bank award from FinanceAsia, and the second consecutive year it has received Best International Investment Bank in Taiwan.

Photo courtesy of Citibank Taiwan Ltd

Asiamoney said that Citi is the top choice in Taiwan for clients seeking advice on equity capital markets (ECM), debt capital markets (DCM) or mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Citibank Taiwan president Christie Chang (張聖心), who is chairwoman of Citi’s Asia-Pacific corporate banking unit, said that last year was one of the bank’s best years.

“Citibank Taiwan had one of its best years in our institutional business last year. We performed well on fixed income, foreign exchange, ECM, DCM, M&A and strategic event-driven markets,” Chang said.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, Citi’s investment banking business maintained strong momentum. With Citi’s global network and resources, Citibank Taiwan provides its industrial customers strategic wealth advice for their global arrangements and assists customers, including many large leading companies, to collect funds from Taiwan and global capital markets,” she added.

Financial markets firm Dealogic said that Citi is the only financial institution ranked among the top three foreign investment banks in Taiwan for ECM, DCM and M&A from April last year to March.

FinanceAsia awarded Citi the Best International Bank in Taiwan for the 26th consecutive year because of its overall performance.

With pretax earnings of NT$6.2 billion (US$207.25 million) last year, Citi Taiwan is the most profitable international bank in Taiwan.

Citibank Taiwan chairman Paulus Mok (莫兆鴻) said that “last year, Citi continued focusing on corporate clients, and supported Taiwan corporate clients to expand their footprint for growing business and facing the challenges posed by disruptions in supply chains.”

“Citi also provided digital solutions for its clients to speed up digital transformation, and supported customers in facing fast-changing developments after the pandemic, as well as to meet their financial demands,” he said.

“In addition, Citi still holds the leading position on securities services, and is still the largest custodian bank in Taiwan. Even though Citi sold its customer banking business in Taiwan to DBS as part of a group strategy, Citi still maintains its tenacity and activity, keeps high standards for risk control and corporate governance for growing business, and continues providing quality service to its customers,” he added.

Regarding the increasingly serious challenge of climate change, Mok said that Citi has long been concerned about environmental issues, and has been helping companies accelerate their transition to a low-carbon economy by leveraging its core financial influence.

In Taiwan, Citi practices sustainable finance and has established internal environmental and social risk management policies to ensure that a certain amount of loans granted are used in areas of environmental protection and sustainable operation.

In addition to compiling its own third party-verified environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) report, Citibank Taiwan has established an ESG task force to further integrate ESG into the company’s strategic development, business and operations, and to work with employees, communities, nonprofit organizations and other groups to advocate and support important issues such as low-carbon sustainability, gender equality, youth employment and food safety to contribute to the advancement and sustainable development of Taiwanese society.

In addition to the accolades received by FinanceAsia and Asiamoney, the bank was last year recognized by many domestic and international specialist publications.

At the end of last year, Citi was given a Triple A rating by The Asset magazine, which named it Best International Bank in Taiwan for the 19th consecutive year as well as Best Corporate Finance and Institutional Bank and Best M&A Bank in Taiwan.

In terms of social corporate responsibility, the company was also recognized by CommonWealth Magazine’s Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility Award and Excellence magazine’s Best Corporate Social Responsibility Award last year.