Banks love league tables when they are near the top and hate them when they are not. There can only be a few winners, so the most widely used tables published by Thomson Financial and Dealogic are often scorned by the majority outside of the top five or 10. But there are some league tables that cannot be ignored: rankings compiled by borrowers.

At a time when Eurobond issuance is declining for the first time in several years, the world's biggest bond issuers are crucial providers of fee income for US and European investment banks and securities firms. Borrowers have cottoned on to the power of league tables and are policing their relationship banks more severely than ever before.