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After the February unveiling of an ambitious turnaround strategy, Barclays' CEO Antony Jenkins faces new risks to earnings, uncertainty over the direction of the bank's US investment banking arm – core to its global footprint - and market pressures to accelerate capital accumulation.

Revenues at EBS, Icap’s electronic FX broking platform, have fallen as central bank action stemmed volatility in currency markets.

The Sub-Saharan Africa survey is comprised of two parts: Best Sub-Saharan Africa research house and the Best managed companies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Euromoney’s 2nd Sub-Saharan Africa Company ranking is based on a survey of market analysts at leading banks and research institutes in the region. Respondents are asked to nominate the top three companies in each of the countries or sectors they covered, bearing in mind market strength, profitability, growth potential and quality of management and earnings.

Along with First Bank, UBA is the other of the big five that is a descendant of a colonial-era bank: in this case, British and French Bank, which was converted to United Bank for Africa after independence in 1961. Former CEO Tony Elumelu’s Standard Trust Bank then acquired UBA in 2005. That heritage gives an important advantage: like First Bank, UBA’s branch network is one of the biggest in the country. Even if (like First Bank) some of these are legacy branches in less profitable rural areas, the network still gives UBA an outstanding base for cheap funding.

More than any other of the big five – and in stark contrast to some banks in Lagos – the entry hall of Access’s headquarters has a welcoming and upbeat feel. It is, perhaps, partly because this is the newest institution to enter the top tier of Nigerian banks. Access’s ability to stay in the top five by assets will be largely dependent on the success of its acquisition last year of Intercontinental, which before the 2009 bailouts was Nigeria’s sixth-biggest bank. The fact that Access’s executives have been able to move into Intercontinental’s headquarters might be cause for hope.

HSBC’s Flint sees tension rise between home and host regulators; Deutsche says balkanization threatens financial stability.

Euromoney’s ninth Annual Central & Eastern Europe Company ranking is based on a survey of market analysts at leading banks and research institutes in the region. Respondents are asked to nominate the top three companies in each of the countries or sectors they covered, bearing in mind market strength, profitability, growth potential and quality of management and earnings.

Union Bank’s headquarters is one of the tallest in Lagos, yet its age is showing. The contrast with the friendly and upbeat atmosphere at a bank such as Access is glaring.

If Nigeria’s top five banks were the big-five African game animals, First Bank would undoubtedly be the elephant – the biggest. The brand even features an image of an elephant. CEO Bisi Onasanya acknowledges that his bank has always had a reputation, like the elephant, for strength and reliability. The relative trust First Bank enjoys is crucial in a country where depositors have learnt harsh lessons of banks with shorter histories. First Bank is the oldest bank in Nigeria – it was once part of Standard Chartered – and its branding trumpets a foundation date of 1894.

The aftermath of the country’s margin-lending crisis and ensuing clean-up has given way to a rump of five big banks. So what differentiates them, and how will each fend off those determined to usurp them? Euromoney speaks to their CEOs in Lagos.