The submission portal for LatinFinance’s 2026 Deals of the Year Awards is now open through 11:59 PM ET on Friday, October 9, 2026. For scheduling reasons, no extensions can be granted this year, which is why the portal opens a week earlier than in prior years.
Below is a list of this year’s categories and the required data for each. Please review carefully prior to your submission.
The full list of 2026 Deals of the Year winners can be found in the Q2 2027 edition of LatinFinance Magazine. Click here to see the full list of 2025 winners.
The awards recognize the transactions, issuers and advisers that defined the year across Latin American and Caribbean capital markets — sovereign, quasi-sovereign and corporate issuance, loans, restructurings, equity, M&A and private capital, alongside our country and regional awards for investment banks and law firms.
Winners will be presented at the Capital Markets Dinner featuring the Deals of the Year Awards on Thursday, January 14 at Gotham Hall in New York City. The dinner will be preceded that morning by LatinFinance’s 2027 Latin America & Caribbean Capital Markets Summit, held at the New York Stock Exchange.
To participate in this year’s program, use our nomination portal to collaborate with colleagues and submit your deals for consideration. Click here to submit starting on September 21
Below is the list of this year’s categories and the required data for each. Please review carefully before making your submission.
Reference period: October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026
Nominations open: Monday, September 21, 2026
Nominations close: Friday, October 9, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET
Submit at: awards.latinfinance.com
The full list of 2026 Deals of the Year winners will appear in the Q2 2027 edition of LatinFinance Magazine. See the full list of 2025 winners
Categories
There are 61 categories this year. Seven are new for 2026, marked below.
Issuer Awards
1. Sovereign Issuer of the Year
2. Corporate Issuer of the Year
3. Financial Institution Issuer of the Year (new)
4. Sustainable Issuer of the Year – Sovereign
5. Sustainable Issuer of the Year – Corporate
6. Debut Issuer of the Year
Transaction Awards
7. Sovereign Bond of the Year
8. Corporate High-Grade Bond of the Year
9. Corporate High-Yield Bond of the Year
10. Quasi-Sovereign High-Grade Bond of the Year
11. Quasi-Sovereign High-Yield Bond of the Year
12. Sovereign Liability Management Deal of the Year
13. Quasi-Sovereign Liability Management Deal of the Year
14. Corporate Liability Management Deal of the Year
15. Subnational Deal of the Year
16. Syndicated Loan of the Year
17. Leveraged Loan of the Year (new)
18. Acquisition Financing of the Year (new)
19. Sovereign Restructuring of the Year
20. Corporate Restructuring of the Year
21. Financial Institution Deal of the Year
22. Sovereign Local Currency Deal of the Year
23. Quasi-Sovereign Local Currency Deal of the Year
24. Corporate Local Currency Deal of the Year
25. Structured Financing of the Year
26. Growth Company Financing of the Year (new)
27. Blended Finance Deal of the Year (new)
28. Financing Innovation of the Year
29. Breakthrough Deal of the Year (new)
30. Initial Public Offering of the Year
31. Equity Follow-On of the Year
32. Private Equity Deal of the Year
33. Venture Capital Deal of the Year (new)
34. Private Credit Deal of the Year
35. Cross-Border M&A Deal of the Year
36. Domestic M&A Deal of the Year
37. Sovereign Sustainable Deal of the Year
38. Corporate Sustainable Deal of the Year
Institution Awards
39. Law Firm of the Year – Argentina
40. Law Firm of the Year – Brazil
41. Law Firm of the Year – Chile
42. Law Firm of the Year – Colombia
43. Law Firm of the Year – Peru
44. Law Firm of the Year – Mexico
45. Law Firm of the Year – Caribbean
46. Law Firm of the Year – Central America
47. Law Firm of the Year – Latin America
48. Law Firm of the Year – Sustainable Finance
49. Investment Bank of the Year – Argentina
50. Investment Bank of the Year – Brazil
51. Investment Bank of the Year – Chile
52. Investment Bank of the Year – Colombia
53. Investment Bank of the Year – Peru
54. Investment Bank of the Year – Mexico
55. Investment Bank of the Year – Caribbean
56. Investment Bank of the Year – Central America
57. Investment Bank of the Year – Latin America
58. Bond House of the Year
59. M&A House of the Year
60. Equity House of the Year
61. Loan House of the Year
What’s new for 2026
Financial Institution Issuer of the Year (3) recognizes the bank or non-bank financial institution with the strongest funding program across the year, judged across senior, subordinated, capital, covered and securitized issuance rather than on a single deal.
Leveraged Loan of the Year (17) and Acquisition Financing of the Year (18) separate sponsor-backed and event-driven lending from the broader syndicated loan market.
Growth Company Financing of the Year (26) replaces our SME award. This category recognizes a financing that marked a step change in an issuer’s access to capital — a first international deal, a first rated transaction, a first benchmark, or a move from bank debt to the capital markets.
Blended Finance Deal of the Year (27) is for structures that use concessional, first-loss or guarantee capital to mobilize commercial money that would not otherwise have participated. It replaces our DFI-Backed Deal award, with a clear focus on how the capital stack is assembled.
Breakthrough Deal of the Year (29) is for financings executed where market access was not a given — a credit returning after a long absence, a market reopened, or an issuer clearing conditions that had kept it out.
Venture Capital Deal of the Year (33) gives early-stage rounds their own category, distinct from private equity, as the region’s venture market matures.
One further change: Quasi-Sovereign Bond of the Year has been split into separate high-grade and high-yield categories (10 and 11), mirroring the corporate awards.
Eligibility
To be eligible, a transaction must have priced, closed or completed between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026. The relevant date depends on format:
- Bonds, equity offerings and other capital markets issuance — pricing date
- Loans, M&A, private equity, venture capital and private credit transactions — closing date
- Restructurings and liability management exercises — settlement or effective date
Institution and issuer awards (categories 1–6 and 39–61) are judged on activity across the full reference period.
Judging criteria
Transaction awards (categories 7–38)
- Market significance, strategic importance and precedent-setting qualities
- Structural aspects of the transaction, including complexity, innovation and size
- Execution, including price and demand achieved relative to other references in the market and to conditions at the time
- Secondary market performance, and reception by peers and investors
- Geographical reach, where relevant
- Impact, where relevant
Issuer awards (categories 1–6) and institution awards (categories 39–61)
- Overall strategy, volume and diversity of transactions
- Innovation and foresight
- Execution quality and outcomes across transactions worked on
- Role in particularly complex, innovative or large deals over the year
- Volume of transactions over the year, and relative to previous years
- Impact of transactions worked on over the year
Selection process
The LatinFinance 2026 Deals of the Year Awards are decided solely by LatinFinance’s editors following an extensive research process. There is no fee to enter, and participation in the awards has no bearing on editorial coverage.
Market consultation. LatinFinance editors may, at their discretion, discuss the relative merits of shortlisted transactions and institutions with a wide range of market participants, while maintaining the integrity of the nomination process.
Examination of financial data. LatinFinance researches data and other publicly available information for each nominated transaction and institution. Depending on the category, this may include presentations on the assets or projects being financed, stock exchange filings, transaction pricing details and secondary market trading data.
Nominations must include all relevant CUSIP, ISIN or other unique identifiers that are publicly available, so that we can pinpoint exactly which assets are being nominated. Non-public transactions submitted through the formal nominations process must be accompanied by documentation sufficient for examination if they are to be considered. Special circumstances or technical limitations should be raised with the editorial department at awards@latinfinance.com.
Editorial evaluation. LatinFinance’s editorial team retains discretion over the final allocation of awards in each category. Final decisions are based on nominations, market consultation, research of financial data, and feedback on transactions over the course of the awards review period.
LatinFinance reserves the right to withhold an award in any category, to move a submission to a category we consider a better fit, or to further delineate and sub-divide categories at its own discretion.
Material submitted through the nominations process is treated as confidential and is used solely for the purpose of judging these awards.
Announcements and awards dinner
Winners will be informed in November 2026, with the news embargoed until the awards ceremony.
The awards will be presented at the Capital Markets Dinner featuring the Deals of the Year Awards on Thursday, January 14 at Gotham Hall, New York City. The dinner will be preceded that morning by LatinFinance’s 2027 Latin America & Caribbean Capital Markets Summit, held at the New York Stock Exchange.
The full list of winners will appear in the Q2 2027 edition of LatinFinance Magazine.
How to enter
All entries must be submitted through the official nomination form at awards.latinfinance.com. The nomination period opens on September 21, 2026 and closes at 11:59 PM ET on October 9, 2026.
The deadline is final. The system automatically prevents submissions after the deadline.
Institutions working in the financial and capital markets — banks, law firms, consultancies, investors, corporates, government entities, rating agencies and advisers — may submit one nomination per category. Please coordinate internally so that your institution files a single entry in each category it enters; the platform makes it straightforward to share and review a draft before finalizing.
Where a transaction could plausibly fit more than one category, choose the one that best captures why the deal mattered. Entries spread across several categories dilute rather than improve their chances.
Using the platform
- You may edit your entry after submitting, up until the deadline.
- You can upload documents, review them within your team, and collaborate on the submission before you file it.
- You can enter, edit and review entries on a mobile device. Log in at awards.latinfinance.com or scan the QR code on the PDF version of your draft or final entry.
- You can use the copy feature to duplicate an entry and change the category as required.
When you register, please ensure all personal details are entered accurately, including contact details. These will be used if we have questions about a nomination, and to notify winners.
Required information
For categories 7–38, nominations must include sections 1, 2 and 3 below.
For categories 1–6 and 39–61, nominations must include sections 4 and 5 below.
All items are required unless otherwise indicated.
Section 1: Deal information (categories 7–38)
- Deal name
- Deal type (bond, loan, IPO, etc.)
- Eligibility date — pricing, closing or completion date as applicable to the format (must fall between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026)
- Total deal size in USD
- Total deal size in local currency
- FX conversion rate
- Maturity date
- Coupon / yield
- Number of transactions or tranches involved in the deal
- For each transaction or tranche: issuing entity, instrument, transaction size, coupon, yield, issuance price, identifier (CUSIP / ISIN / ticker), fixed or floating, maturity date and pricing or closing date
Section 2: Deal participants (categories 7–38)
- Issuer(s), deal sponsor(s) or acquiror
- Legal jurisdictions associated with the issued assets (for example, New York law, where appropriate)
- Role of your institution (mandated lead arranger, lead bookrunner, co-lead, support, etc.)
- Names of all supporting banks and bankers involved: bank name, role, banker name, lead banker (Y/N), contact phone, contact email, location
- Names of all supporting law firms and partners involved: firm name, role, partner name, lead partner (Y/N), contact phone, contact email, location
- Names of other institutions involved (investors, consultants, technical advisers, etc.)
- Name of the CEO or CFO at the nominated issuer, deal sponsor or acquiror
- Contact email and phone for that CEO or CFO
Submissions will not be considered without the issuer-side executive name and contact details.
Section 3: Additional questions (categories 7–38)
- Why is this deal worthy of an award? (up to 750 words)
Section 4: Supporting deals (categories 1–6 and 39–61)
Issuer and institutional excellence is judged in part by the transactions the nominee worked on. Complete the following for each deal included in support of your nomination.
- Deal name
- Deal type
- Issuer, deal sponsor or acquiror
- Eligibility date — pricing, closing or completion date as applicable (must fall between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026)
- Total deal size in USD
- Total deal size in local currency
- FX conversion rate
- Maturity date
- Number of transactions or tranches involved
- For each transaction or tranche: identifier (CUSIP / ISIN / ticker), size in USD, size in local currency, price, yield, coupon and maturity date
- Why this deal was included in your nomination, and why it stands out in the market (up to 300 words)
- Names, titles and contact details for all bankers and legal counsel involved
- Name of the CEO, managing partner or relevant executive at the nominated institution
- Contact email and phone for that executive
Section 5: Additional questions (categories 1–6 and 39–61)
- Why do you believe your institution is worthy of an award? (up to 1,000 words)
Questions about the awards, eligibility or the nominations process should be directed to awards@latinfinance.com.