Alexander Kudrin
& team
Sberbank CIB
Sberbank CIB captures second place for a third consecutive year. Guided by Alexander Kudrin in Moscow, the seven-member team provides a “unique and outstanding point of view that combines macro and political analysis,” according to one buy-side loyalist. The strategists have a “relatively optimistic” outlook for the global fixed-income market, Kudrin says, because continued investor appetite for risk should keep demand for emerging-markets debt strong. Nonetheless, fiscal problems in Europe’s peripheral countries remain a key source of risk, and continuing high volatility could provoke periods of “sharp correction,” he cautions. The group is advising clients to increase their exposure to such risky assets as lower-rated B and double-B bonds with moderate durations, and instruments denominated in local currencies. — Carolyn Koo