Deutsche Bank Deemed Emerging Markets' Best Brokerage

Asset managers that invest in emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa prefer Deutsche Bank over all other full-service brokerages. The German financial services firm ranks first on Institutional Investor’s 2012 Emerging-Markets Equity & Fixed-Income research, sales and trading teams, so it’s hardly surprising that it debuts atop our inaugural roster of the region’s best brokerages.

This marks the second time this year that Deutsche Bank has been recognized as a regional champion. In March the firm was declared Europe’s Best Brokerage after it swept the 2012 All-Europe research, sales and trading teams. (The only other regional brokerage ranking released to date, for Asia ex-Japan, is capped by Bank of America Merrill Lynch; our inaugural lineup of Latin America’s Best Brokerages will be unveiled in August.)

Citi — which ties for second place in Emerging-Markets Equity & Fixed-Income research and is also No. 2 in sales and trading services — takes the second tier in the Best Brokerages ranking, followed by BofA Merrill in third. The latter firm also ties for second in research, is fourth in sales and is third in trading. Rounding out the top five brokerage houses are Morgan Stanley (No. 4 in research [tie] and in trading services, No. 3 in sales) and J.P. Morgan (No. 6 in research, No. 5 in sales and in trading).

To determine which firms warrant recognition as Best Brokerages, we begin by identifying those that rank in all three survey components: research, sales and trading services. We rerank these contenders in each component, then total the ranks for each firm to determine its overall score. Finally, we rank the firms in inverse order on the basis of these scores; the lower the score, the higher the position in the brokerage ranking.

When these aggregated totals are further screened by the country in which each firm is headquartered, Russia’s VTB Capital is the best brokerage in emerging Europe (which includes Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States) and Egypt’s EFG-Hermes is tops among those firms headquartered in the Middle East & North Africa. For the purposes of this ranking, global banks headquartered outside emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa are considered domiciled in the country in which their primary emerging-markets operations are based.

Emerging Markets’ Best Brokerages is based on results of the 2012 Emerging-Markets Equity & Fixed-Income Research Team survey, which reflects the opinions of 600 individuals at nearly 400 institutions globally managing an estimated $350 billion in emerging-markets equities and $126 billion in emerging-markets fixed-income assets; the Emerging-Markets Equity & Fixed-Income Sales Team, which is based on responses from participants at 87 percent of those institutions; and the Emerging-Markets Equity & Fixed-Income Trading Team, which is based on responses from individuals at 68 percent of those buy-side firms.