Search results for

In spite of strong competitive pressures at home and the challenge of the global financial crisis, Raiffeisen banka managed to maintain its number one spot in Serbia thanks to a strong across-the-board outperformance of its rivals in asset growth and profitability. At the end of 2008, the bank boasted more than 100 outlets serving almost 600,000 customers and covered all business segments including corporate, retail, small and medium-sized enterprise, and treasury and investment banking. Key financial highlights in 2008 included a 52% increase in operating income and 38% rise in net income. At the same time, the bank slashed its cost-income ratio by 15 percentage points to 49.1%.

Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) remains the pre-eminent bank in Slovenia, easily eclipsing its competitors in the breadth of its banking services and products. Despite a challenging domestic economic backdrop it retained its grip on the Slovenian banking market in 2008, registering positive growth in assets, loans and deposits. As a result it continues to control roughly a third of the Slovenian market. Highlights in 2008 included a $300 million capital increase, which boosted the bank’s capital base to almost €1.2 billion from €893 million in 2007, with the bank’s capital adequacy ratio increasing by one percentage point over the same period to reach a respectable 11.9%. Although after-tax profits slumped from €119 million to €49 million, there was positive news on net interest income, which jumped from €229 million to €286 million. As well as being the leading retail and corporate bank in Slovenia, NLB’s strong investment banking and asset management operations mean it is well placed to benefit from any economic upswing. As a systemically important bank, it has also secured a guarantee from the Slovenian government for a planned €2.5 billion bond issuance programme.

With more than 1.2 million customers, UniCredit Bulbank remains by far the biggest bank in Bulgaria, providing a wide range of products and services through its universal banking platform. In 2008, despite the challenging economic backdrop, the bank further strengthened its already strong market position, increasing its assets by 21.5%, compared with an average level of 17% for the rest of the banking sector.

"Although there were no deals of note during the review period, we did arrange a conference call for investors with the central bank governor"

Santander lags behind Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland in its share of customer deposits in the UK and ranks only fourth in its share of lending but all the momentum in UK banking lies with the group the Spanish bank is building on the foundations of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.

In Spain, Santander operates through two large networks, one carrying its own name, the other that of Banesto in which it has the majority stake. Either bank could win this award in its own right. Together they are extremely powerful and, combined, give the bank leading shares in the domestic market for loans, customer funds under management, numbers of individual customers, assets and profits.

In a tumultuous year for Portuguese banking, two of the five largest groups required recapitalization. Banco Espírito Santo raised €1.2 billion – this followed a May 2006 capital-raising of €1.38 billion. However, shareholders’ equity today is only about €4.6 billion, raising questions about the group’s capital consumption. During the awards period, BES still had the lowest tier I capital of the big five.

Bank of Cyprus was the only big bank to increase after-tax profits year-on-year – €502 million compared with €485 million. It benefits from an ample deposit base, meaning it has not been afflicted by the woes in the international wholesale funding markets, and it maintained its low cost-income ratio at 44.9% despite an expansion of its network in Greece and in Russia, Romania and Ukraine. Its excellent liquidity position allowed it to continue to grow its domestic operations, and loans across the group rose by 29%. At the same time its deposits rose by 11%. Despite the exposure to central and eastern Europe and the deteriorating economic environment, its NPL ratio remained unchanged at 3.8%.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has been at the forefront of the financials recapitalization process throughout Europe, and in Ireland the bank won more M&A advisory business than its rivals – with a 65% market share – in large part because it advised the Irish government on the capital injections into Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland (€4.9 billion each). Away from these jumbo transactions, Bank of America Merrill Lynch was active in the energy sector and diversified foods.

BNP Paribas earned €3 billion for the whole of 2008 but its first-quarter 2009 results were particularly instructive. They were far better than expected. Revenues rose 28% on the same period a year earlier to €9.5 billion and were up 95% on the fourth quarter of 2008. The corporate and investment bank had a stellar first quarter, particularly in fixed income, but its retail banking performance was also strong and, with the prospect of additional firepower in the form of Fortis, suggests that this bank has come out of the crisis stronger. Although the domestic market in France has been relatively unaffected by lending excesses or real estate bubbles it still has not been plain sailing for French banks. In a tough year BNPP had by far the best results among its peers. Having gained some 200,000 customers during the course of 2008, its growth accelerated by some 65,000 in the first three months of 2009. BNP Paribas now has the largest deposit base in Europe – something that will likely stand in its favour given the woes in wholesale funding markets.

Deutsche Bank can comfortably claim to be the best bank in its domestic market. It was the only big German institution to avoid a state injection of capital in the past year. Deutsche speedily recalibrated its business model following the collapse of Bear Stearns and still generated €16.1 billion of net revenues in the 12-month period ending March 2009. Like many of its international peers, it bounced back spectacularly in Q1 from a loss-making year to post €1.8 billion of income on revenues of €7.2 billion – giving it a return on equity of 22%.

Between January and April of this year Chile’s banks made a profit of $618 million. The country’s largest private bank, Santander Chile, reported a profit of $197.9 million during the four-month period. Banco de Chile, the number two bank, reported a profit of $127.6 million.