From laughing stock to global contender, the US firm has come a long way in a short time.

WARNING – CONTAINS SPOILERS: It’s amazing how many senior bankers are addicted to the HBO series Game of Thrones. Or then again, perhaps it’s not.

Summer is upon us and with it the lull of the Second Great Moderation. The First Great Moderation, in the half decade to 2008, was a disappointment, given that it ended with the worst market crisis since the crash of 1929 and a global recession.

Credit Suisse estimates $104 billion exposure; exposed banks’ share prices sell off.

Although terrorist attacks raged in Kenya at the beginning of the week, the country’s first Eurobond and the largest in the continent excluding South Africa was received well, highlighting sustained demand for emerging market debt.

Banks are hurriedly developing mobile-banking platforms to keep pace with rising demand among consumers and clients to transact business via their smartphones, but some pure technology firms are stealing a march on them in mobile payments.

Not everyone was blown away by the targeted LTRO and ABS measures announced by Mario Draghi to stimulate lending to Europe’s real economy.

This is no longer a straightforward award to give. There are at least five homegrown houses that can make a good case to be the best in the region.

The Bahrain award is one of the easier ones in the region to decide upon; Ahli United is the leader on almost any metric. Its $579.4 million net profit for the 2013 financial year ($366.5 million after allowing for a one-off exceptional gain) was a record and a 25.7% improvement on the previous year, as well as being the biggest profit in the country’s banking industry. Total assets grew 9.3% to $32.65 billion; loans, 8.3%; customer deposits, 17.4%. NPLs are a healthy 2.4% and total provisions for those NPLs 149.4%, while the bank’s capital adequacy ratio now stands at 16.2%. Most of these metrics lead the industry.