At the 20th annual Thomson Reuters International Financing Review (IFR) awards gala dinner on Wednesday, 21 January £1,164,240 was pledged to Save the Children, the global charitable organisation that works to save and improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable children. Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, President of Save the Children, attended the prestigious event to present Colm Kelleher, president of the Institutional Securities Group at Morgan Stanley, with the coveted “Bank of the Year Award” for 2014. Last night’s total takes the cumulative fundraising figure from the annual awards ceremony to £23,345,087million.
During the evening’s proceedings, senior representatives of the world’s leading investment banks pledged money to Save the Children via an interactive charity bidding board. Morgan Stanley topped the list of contributors with a phenomenal bid of £630,000, the largest ever Bookrunner bid to Save the Children in 20 years of IFR Awards history.
Douglas Rouse, Corporate Partnerships Director at Save the Children, said: “I would like to thank everyone at the IFR Awards Dinner for their incredible generosity not only last night, but over the past 20 years. Thanks to your ongoing support, Save the Children is able to continue its vital work saving the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable children. It is always so inspiring to see such engaged and passionate supporters and the difference the investment banking industry has helped us to make is absolutely phenomenal.”
The dinner, held in the Great Room of London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, and attended by over 1,000 senior investment bankers, was organised by IFR, the world’s leading source of capital markets intelligence. The IFR event is recognised as the key awards ceremony for global financiers and is Save the Children’s largest single annual fundraiser.
“I never cease to be amazed at the generosity of the capital markets community at the IFR awards dinner, now in their 20th year. Even with the tremendous progress made over the past few years in lowering child mortality and improving access to education and basic healthcare, so much still needs to be done. The funds donated by attendees at the IFR event will do so much to improve the lives of so many children,” said Keith Mullin, Editor-at-Large of IFR.
IFR award winners for 2014 include:
- Bank of the Year - Morgan Stanley
- Bond House - HSBC
- Equity House - Morgan Stanley
- Loan House - Citigroup
- Structured Finance House - Deutsche Bank
- Derivatives House - HSBC
- Restructuring Adviser - Moelis & Co
- Emerging Markets Bond House - Citigroup
A full list of the 2014 winners can be viewed here.