> FITCH RATINGS: BEST CREDIT SERVICES GLOBAL 2022
Fitch Ratings is a leading provider of credit ratings, commentary and research, with a 100-year history of value creation in its coverage markets, which include Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. In this era of volatility & technological transformation, Fitch provides clarity and insight, enabling its clients all over the world to make better decisions. In addition to ratings, Fitch Group offers courses, qualifications and apprenticeships through Fitch Learning, as well as targeted research and analytics through Fitch Solutions. Fitch Ratings was one of the first agencies to respond to the global pandemic, publishing timely and in-depth COVID-19 related reports to share updated credit views, and providing a dedicated Coronavirus website
with COVID-19 related research, multi-media content and webinars. In 2021, nearly 6 million unique users visited fitchratings.com, a 38% increase year over year. Fitch Ratings’ analytical staff conducted over 16,000 rating committees, and published 31,243 pieces of content, an approximate 15% increase each year. They produced over 15,000 Rating Action Commentaries (RACs) and authored more than 9,500 issuer reports, Non-Rating Action Commentaries (NRACs) and Fitch Wires through 2021. Fitch also held more webinars than any other rating agency; its 438 webinars attracted 36,000 participants. These results have strengthened Fitch’s brand and have driven its business performance even in the face of a challenging global environment.
Fitch Ratings’ focus has, and in our opinion will continue to be, on providing transparent, objective and substantive data that enables confidence in decision-making. Thus, in September 2021, Fitch launched Sustainable Fitch, offering insights, tools and data that have been designed and built entirely and exclusively to help bring clarity to the ESG financial community. This includes the first global ESG Ratings solution for all asset classes at an entity and instrument level built from the ground up to exclusively help the ESG focused financial community make smarter decisions. The CFI.co judging panel has decided in Fitch’s favour in previous awards programmes — and now finds cause to continue another year. Fitch Ratings wins the 2022 Best Credit Services (Global) award.
The British Virgin Islands (BVI) evoke images of pristine beaches and verdant landscapes, but this archipelago is also home to one of the world’s leading offshore financial centres. BVI Finance has promoted the islands’ financial services industry over the past two decades, serving as spokesperson and liaison for new and existing partners in emerging and traditional markets worldwide. BVI Finance maintains a regular presence on the global conference and trade show circuit, engaging with key stakeholders and expounding on the many advantages of doing
business in the islands. The Covid pandemic has prevented most of those events from taking place physically over the past two years, but BVI Finance has maintained momentum by embracing digital channels. It adjusted to complications and moved forward with technical innovation including developing a compelling proposition for FinTech. As a result, it has achieved strong yearly results, with business up by over 60 percent. In some areas, it was the highest growth rate seen over the past three years. The BVI is a self-governing British Overseas Territory with an independent legal
and judicial system based on English Common Law. The jurisdiction boasts an innovative and internationally recognised regulatory regime with a business-friendly operating environment and no taxes on capital gains or withholdings. BVI Finance helps connect global markets and stimulate capital flows, particularly into developing countries. In recognition of the crucial role it plays in the global economy, the CFI.co judging panel presents BVI Finance — a repeat programme winner — with the 2021 global award for Best Offshore Financial Services Centre.
> BVI FINANCE: BEST OFFSHORE FINANCIAL SERVICES CENTRE GLOBAL 2021
> PGM GLOBAL INC: BEST GLOBAL PORTFOLIO STRATEGY TEAM NORTH AMERICA 2021
PGM Global, formerly Pavilion Global Markets, has an annual trading volume of some $70bn and a trading desk that operates around the clock throughout the work week. The company pulls from a 50-year history to provide institutional investors with industry-leading services in securities trading, transition management and global macro research. It conducts unbiased analysis of 35 countries and makes investment calls on a short-term horizon of nine to 12 months. It offers forward-looking, topicfocused research reports, which include four 116
pages of detailed notes and eight informative graphs. On Fridays, it publishes a report called Out of Focus, compiling the research materials that didn’t go into the weekly topical reports. It’s solid timely research, and PGM Global thinks it would be a shame to waste it. PGM Global has some 10,000 charts that it references and updates in real time to conduct global macro research across all asset classes. It focuses on the impacts of macro events on equities, fixed income, commodities and currencies. It also offers bespoke research CFI.co | Capital Finance International
services that have proven equally successful for investment managers and pension funds. PGM’s global macro research team generates market insights that identify risks and opportunities. It combines a top-down, bottomup and quantitative approach to analysis, starting with a global economic overview and then digging deeper to uncover anomalies. CFI.co announces PGM Global Inc, a repeat programme winner, as champion in the 2021 award category Best Global Portfolio Strategy Team (North America).