The Euromoney guide to emerging-market banks
When staff at a Brazilian bank switch on their computers in the morning, their screens are filled with a panoramic view of a tropical beach. A prompt in one corner asks: "Where would you rather be?" After fighting their way through São Paulo's notoriously bad traffic to face the tough banking day ahead, the answer would seem self-evident. It's meant to be. The unwritten message is: work hard, make money and you could soon be a wealthy retiree living in paradise.
No doubt bankers everywhere harbour such dreams. Some, however, may be able to speed up their emigration by landing jobs with fast-growing banks in places such as Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean or in Malta in the Mediterranean.
While volatility is rocking major emerging markets such as Brazil, Indonesia and Russia, the latest Euromoney emerging market bank (Emba) bank ratings gives surprisingly high scores to banks in these smaller countries.
The image of the Caribbean as a place to launder drug money while the regulators look the other way is challenged. The reality in some of the islands is different.