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

Big isn’t always best, as certain global banks have proved this year. But in the case of Itaú Unibanco, the maxim holds true.

In 2008, Raiffeisen Bank continued to go from strength to strength in Albania, where it remains the premier financial services player by a huge margin, offering a wide range of products and services through its universal banking platform. As the country’s clear market leader, Raiffeisen is the number one bank in Albania in deposit volumes, assets and loans. It serves more than 500,000 customers through its 100-strong branch network, which is twice as large as its nearest competitor’s. Despite the financial crisis that hit the international banking markets in 2008, the bank increased its assets by 5% to €2.04 billion, giving it a total market share of assets of 31%, more than €1 billion ahead of its closest rival. With an outstanding loan portfolio of €640 million, €240 million ahead of its nearest rival, Raiffeisen Bank commands a 26% market share of total lending. Despite all the challenges of 2008, Raiffeisen Bank continued to introduce new products and services across its corporate and retail businesses. Its leasing arm was particularly successful, increasing its assets by €15 million to €25 million and almost doubling the number of customers, to give it a market share of more than 50%.

The banking industry in Latin America is in a state of flux. As the credit crunch took hold a series of mergers and acquisitions led to new competitors rising up the food chain, while old names quietly shrank their operations and laid off staff.

Qatar’s leaders are taking pre-emptive action to ensure that none of its banks gets into difficulty. Last year the Qatar Investment Authority bought 5% stakes in all local banks and is expected to take another 5% later this year, except in Qatar National Bank, which is already 50% state owned.

Korea’s beleaguered banks have probably emerged from the past 12 months with more credit in the eyes of international investors than either side might have expected. There had been murmurs about the banking system’s poor capitalization even before Lehman Brothers went under; led by Kexim’s successful issuance in January they began to recapitalize and posted decent end-of-year numbers. While last year’s winner Shinhan was among the better performers, Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) deserves to be named the country’s best. The bank reported strong results given the environment: while net revenue fell W159.6 billion to W782.6 billion ($622.7 million), operating income before provisions rose 15% year on year and the bank ended the year with strong capital ratios of 12.65% BIS capital and 8.82% tier 1 capital. Perhaps more telling than the numbers, however, is the fact that KEB is the firm that seemingly every other bank in the country’s already well-consolidated sector wants to buy. After the saga of HSBC’s protracted and ultimately unconsummated courtship ended in September, numerous Korean banks have been rumoured to be interested in buying a controlling stake in KEB with KB Financial, owner of Kookmin, leading the pack at the time of writing.

The past 12 months have clearly shown that Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz can survive economic and political challenges. Not only has the downturn started to adversely affect trade flows from the land-locked country, but political conflicts also continue to bubble under the surface.

Thanks to its development of a wide range of pioneering corporate and retail banking products and services, Stopanska Banka Skopje continued to post impressive financial results in 2008. Among the key highlights total assets increased to MD59.6 billion ($1.34 billion) from MD54.9 billion in 2007, while profits before tax rose to MD1.51 billion, from MD1.2 billion. The bank increased its countrywide branch network from 60 to 66 in 2008.

Atlasmont Bank Podgorica broke new ground for the Montenegrin banking sector earlier this year when it became the first financial institution from the country to secure an international credit rating. Moody’s Investors Service assigned it a B1 rating based on its strong capital adequacy ratio of 14.3%. As of December 2008, the bank boasted total assets of €157.6 million. Through a nationwide network of 25 offices, Atlasmont Bank provides an extensive range of retail and corporate banking services as well as insurance and asset management. It also has a wholly owned subsidiary, ABM Bank, in Russia and owns a stake in fund manager Atlas Capital Financial Services in Cyprus.

In Vietnam Asia Commercial Bank has been the top lender for several years, and the firm retains Euromoney’s award this year for its ability to maintain growth in a difficult period without suffering a significant drop in asset quality. While the bank did report an increase in gross non-performing loans from $2 million to $20 million, that figure represents only 0.25% of assets and the bank’s NPL ratio was 0.9% as against an industry average of 3.5%. The bank reported net income growth of 15.7% to a total of an equivalent of $142 million, and had the best figures for return on assets and return on equity of its peers. Analysts covering Vietnam say that ACB’s nearest rival, Sacombank, might be closing the gap, but for now Asia Commercial Bank is Vietnam’s strongest bank.

Westpac has generally been viewed as the most conservative of Australia’s big four banks, and that’s never been a more welcome accolade than over the past 12 months. It hasn’t come through the market upheaval unscathed but its modest decline in profit is dreamland compared with what has happened to many US and European banks. Westpac today has the highest tier 1 capital ratio in Australia, the best asset quality and the cleanest balance sheet.

Bahrain’s collection of wholesale banks has hit a point of no return. In 2008, for example, Arab Banking Corporation’s impairment provisions totalled about $1 billion, to help it finish the year with a net loss of $880 million.