Best bank: BBVA
BBVA has developed a sharper, more customer-led operating model in a market that is beginning to normalise after years of instability. The bank’s retail strategy is built around analysing customer needs, delivering simpler end-to-end experiences and increasing the use of digital products and sales.
This strategy particularly important in Argentina’s changing macroeconomic environment, where customers need more flexible, transparent and usable financial tools. The bank’s organisational redesign reinforces this agenda: by giving the retail customer unit full responsibility for CX and financial outcomes, BBVA has aligned customer experience more directly with commercial execution rather than treating it as a separate support function.
A major 2025 development was BBVA Argentina’s strategic alliance with Stellantis to jointly control FCA Compañía Financiera on a 50/50 basis. Auto finance is a high-potential market in Argentina, and the joint venture gives BBVA a more direct route into new vehicle financing through an established manufacturer-linked platform. It also strengthens the bank’s ability to compete in a segment where specialised distribution and dealer integration are critical.
BBVA strengthened its payments proposition with the launch of Dynamic Limits, an innovation that allows customers with two active credit cards (Visa and Mastercard) to unify their available credit limits. BBVA is the first private bank in Argentina to offer this feature, which is designed to give customers greater flexibility, simplicity and purchasing power.
The bank also launched a new app-based financing feature, allowing customers to finance direct debits and single-payment credit card purchases at preferential rates in up to 12 fixed instalments directly from the BBVA app. These features deliver more control over card capacity, more flexible instalment financing and less friction in day-to-day credit usage.
In corporate and investment banking, BBVA serves 847 multinationals, local private-sector companies, large and mid-sized corporates, state-owned enterprises and institutional clients. In 2025, the bank strengthened its International DCM platform for Latin America and Argentina coverage teams, becoming one of the most prominent banks in Argentina’s international bond market. It participated in seven of the 23 Argentine corporate international bond transactions executed during the year, or nearly 30% of corporate deal flow, and acted as global coordinator and joint bookrunner in four of the five largest deals.
Best bank for ESG: Santander
Santander maintained ESG momentum in 2025 despite cooling investor interest and limited government support in Argentina. In sustainable finance, local labelled issuance for the year was only around $65 million, yet Santander participated as bookrunner in approximately $35 million of domestic labelled issuances. Its broader sustainable loan portfolio exceeded $480 million, spanning energy, agribusiness and sustainable mobility.
Santander also supported sustainable infrastructure and public-sector financing through green and sustainability-linked loans. A notable example was the Province of Mendoza green loan, aligned with the LMA Green Loan Principles, which financed low-carbon electric metro infrastructure. The bank also worked with the Province of Córdoba and the IFC on a sustainability-linked A/B loan, with KPIs tied to greenhouse-gas reduction and social inclusion. This transaction used a KPI framework rather than a traditional use-of-proceeds structure, showing innovation in sustainable public-sector financing.
The flagship capital markets transaction during the review period was Santander’s role as coordinator and bookrunner for Genneia’s $400million international green bond, which was the first international green bond issuance by an Argentine corporate. Santander connected this Argentine issuer with global ESG investors, using its international platform and structuring capabilities to support a transaction that would have been difficult to execute in the local market alone. The deal was structured under the ICMA Green Bond Principles, with transparency and impact reporting commitments.
Finally, Santander has a large-scale social agenda. In 2025, the bank invested ARS7.36 billion ($4.9 million) in CSR initiatives and reached more than 232,600 beneficiaries. Education and employability were the flagship themes. Santander Open Academy has 1.49 million users in Argentina, offering free learning in digital skills, finance, leadership and employability.
The bank awarded 10,000 scholarships in 2025, split between university and vocational scholarships, plus 1,927 economic-support scholarships for vulnerable students. Through Santander X, it supported 33,900 entrepreneurs and SMEs.
The bank also became the first in Argentina to block gambling transactions for minors aged 13 to 17, combining product controls with financial education, family and school workshops, and collaboration with public and private partners.
Best bank for corporate responsibility: BBVA
BBVA’s responsible banking model gives equal weight to environmental transition and inclusive growth. Sustainability is one of BBVA’s strategic priorities, with a focus on climate action, energy efficiency, circular economy, decarbonisation and inclusive growth.
In practical terms, this means the bank channels capital towards sustainable infrastructure, entrepreneurship and financial inclusion, while working with communities through education, environmental and social mobility programmes.
In 2025, the bank mobilised ARS3.2 trillion ($2.14 billion) in sustainable financing for climate action and inclusive growth, supporting customers in the transition towards a more sustainable future.
The bank also has a strong social impact pillar centred on financial education and capability building. It promotes financial literacy as a tool to expand opportunity, delivered through programmes such as the Financial Literacy Workshops Platform, Personal Finance with Junior Achievement, and trainer development in partnership with Fundación River.
Entrepreneurship initiatives include Learn to Entrepreneur with Junior Achievement, Emprende with Mujeres 2000, an impact business strengthening programme with Universidad de San Andrés, and a digital inclusion programme with Mujeres en Tecnología. These initiatives build the foundations for SME formation, employment, digital capability and social mobility.
BBVA’s commitment to inclusive growth extends beyond financing and education programmes into community investment and employee engagement. The bank continued to implement its Community Investment Plan, focusing on education and financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, sustainability, community and culture, and volunteering.
Through partnerships with organisations such as Fundación Leer and the Fundación Zorraquín school network, it supported literacy and community development initiatives across Argentina.
Employee volunteering also plays a central role, helping strengthen skills and collaboration within the bank while delivering tangible benefits to local communities.
Best investment bank: Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs is Argentina’s leading investment bank, focused on innovative, breakthrough transactions for local and international corporates. Its franchise is especially strong in advisory: Goldman has led Argentina’s M&A league tables since 2017, with more than 10 M&A transactions executed, while also maintaining the number one ECM franchise and a robust financing platform across debt, loans and project finance.
In 2025, that presence translated into a series of landmark mandates that reopened markets, supported cross-border strategic acquisitions and delivered complex financing for national infrastructure.
The defining ECM transaction was Goldman Sachs’ role as joint bookrunner on Grupo Galicia’s $636 million 100% secondary registered ADR block trade in June 2025. The transaction marked the first equity deal out of Argentina in seven years, reopening the Argentine equity window after a prolonged absence of international issuance. It was also the largest Argentine block trade in the last decade and the second largest ever. Goldman conducted a two day one-on-one marketing process, with the order book multiple times oversubscribed.
In M&A, Goldman was exclusive financial adviser to Despegar on its sale to Prosus for $1.7 billion, one of the largest online travel M&A deals in history. The bank also acted as financial adviser to Rio Tinto on its $6.7 billion acquisition of Arcadium Lithium, the largest mining M&A transaction in Argentina’s history and the largest all-cash lithium deal.
Goldman’s strength lies in its ability to deliver sophisticated structures for complex transactions. The bank acted as exclusive financial adviser to GeoPark on its defence strategy after Pampa Energía disclosed a 10% stake. The response culminated in the adoption of a shareholder rights plan – effectively a poison pill – triggered if any party acquired more than 12% of outstanding shares without board pre-approval. The mechanism allowed existing shareholders to purchase additional shares at a discount, strengthening GeoPark’s position in response to a potential activist or unsolicited accumulation scenario.
This advisory capability goes beyond conventional M&A execution, instead bringing sophisticated defence and governance structuring to an Argentina-linked corporate situation.
Best investment bank for financing solutions: Santander
In 2025, the financing solutions platform at Santander delivered bespoke, high-impact structures against a demanding macroeconomic and regulatory environment. The team originated and arranged transactions totalling an aggregate volume of $2.7 billion across 166 transactions, including one project finance, two debt advisory mandates, four acquisition financings, 10 syndicated loans and more than 149 bilateral transactions including renewals. The group also delivered 74.3% revenue growth and achieved a record average time to market from mandate to disbursement.
Oil export infrastructure project Vaca Muerta Oil Sur (VMOS) was the defining deal, which included a $2 billion syndicated secured term loan in which Santander was part of a five-bank lead group. The transaction was the largest and first true project financing in decades in Argentina, effectively reopening international project finance access for a strategic domestic asset class. VMOS required the full range of Santander’s structuring capabilities: multi-sponsor coordination, risk allocation, covenant design aligned with global project finance standards, and mobilisation of a deep international lender base.
In an Argentine market where long-tenor infrastructure funding has often been constrained by macro volatility and limited investor access, VMOS showed Santander’s ability to help bring global project finance discipline back into the country.
Santander’s work with Argentina’s largest energy company YPF and its related transactions was another highlight. The bank supported YPF’s acquisition of interests from TotalEnergies in Vaca Muerta, acting as sole lead arranger, financial adviser and active joint bookrunner. The mandate required speed, structuring creativity and coordination in a regulated market during a period of macro sensitivity, legislative dynamics and electoral uncertainty.
Santander designed the financing to align with transaction cash flows and milestones while preserving flexibility under volatile conditions. It also acted as debt adviser to YPF for the first phase of LNG Argentina, the YPF–Shell JV, helping assess and sequence financing options, align capital structure with project milestones and stakeholder requirements, and provide an execution roadmap for one of Argentina’s most strategically significant energy export initiatives.
Best digital bank for consumers: Santander
Digital has become the primary engine of Santander’s retail growth, engagement and relationship value. In 2025, the bank moved beyond digital acquisition alone and focused increasingly on sustainable activation, using data, AI and omnichannel delivery to ensure digitally acquired customers became active users. Of all new customers, 78% are now acquired digitally, with more than 620,000 new digital customers added during the review period.
Digital capabilities span the entire retail client lifecycle. Customers can onboard, contract, operate and manage products through the app, online banking and conversational channels, with standard flows requiring no branch or manual intervention.
The bank has also built a digitally enabled servicing model in which 64% of product and service functionalities are fully self-managed, reducing dependence on assisted channels while preserving access to human support when needed.
Santander’s digital lending proposition has become broader and more transparent. In 2025, the bank developed a centralised loans dashboard covering personal, auto and mortgage loans, giving customers a clearer view of their borrowing. It also enabled partial repayments across all loan types and introduced visibility of future instalments for UVA loans, improving predictability in a volatile economic environment.
AI and data are central to Santander’s digital acceleration. The bank integrated predictive modelling into Google Ads to identify users with a higher likelihood of early activation, after recognising that only around 30% of digitally acquired users were activating their accounts. It also implemented an API-based integration between its native app and Adobe Target, enabling continuous experimentation and real-time personalisation based on customer behaviour and context. This supported more relevant communications, higher engagement and faster activation. These enhancements improve the quality of digital growth, not just the volume: retail NPS was 37 in 2025, but digital channel satisfaction was materially higher, with app NPS at 73 and online banking NPS at 74.
Best bank for SMEs: Santander
Santander serves 120,000 SME clients, equivalent to a 24% market share. Its strategy is structured around three execution pillars: best-in-class digital experience, expansion of digital capabilities and measurable digital adoption. In 2025, the bank allocated 13.6% of its total technology budget specifically to SME digital developments.
These digital capabilities include end-to-end digital onboarding for local currency and FX accounts, digital broker access through Santander Valores, and integrated credit offers in one flow. In 2025, 75% of new SME accounts were opened digitally. Lending is even more advanced: 97% of commercial loans were requested online, with immediate availability, and the bank offers fully digital loans of up to €1.2 million for both customers and non-customers.
Santander has also digitised the operational banking services that SMEs need every day. In 2025, it processed 77,000 international trade transactions digitally, giving SME importers and exporters a more efficient route for cross-border trade. The bank also introduced a Payment Hub for suppliers and payroll, enabling 24/7 real-time internal payments within Santander, without operational restrictions. Digital self-service now covers commercial card management, tax payments and alerts, investments, legal administration and attorney-related requests, with 35% of attorney requests resolved fully online.
Another distinctive part of Santander’s SME proposition is the acquisition of 50% of NERA, a digital agribusiness platform connecting producers, suppliers and financing. In 2025, 1,100 SME clients were financed through NERA in a fully digital process, reducing settlement times and improving operational efficiency.
The platform helps Santander serve one of Argentina’s most important economic sectors with a model designed around actual agribusiness workflows. The bank also developed paperless credit offers using SENASA public data to infer livestock activity and real productivity, improving credit accuracy and sector inclusion.
