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Analysts covering the Philippines were almost unanimous this year in praising BPI for the way in which it has maintained a strong and liquid balance sheet throughout the crisis: at the end of March 2009 the firm claimed the highest capital adequacy ratio among its peers at 14.9% and had grown deposits by 8.8%. BPI claims the award for best bank in the Philippines from rival BDO, now the larger firm thanks to its merger with Equitable PCI bank in 2007. While BDO retained a strong capital position throughout 2008 as integration of the two units developed, its return on assets, return on equity and capital adequacy ratio were all below those of BPI. In addition to its strong profitability, BPI wins further plaudits for the success of its investment banking arm, BPI Capital, which worked on key deals including the treasury’s P70 billion ($1.45 billion) retail bond and Ayala Corp’s P6 billion preferred shares issuance.

STANDARD CHARTERED: The bank posted impressive results and is aggressively

SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE: SG’s equity derivatives business has bounced back from l’affaire Kerviel with new controls in place and a renaissance of its legendary inventiveness

Taiwan is non-Japan Asia’s least profitable banking sector, with a market long overdue for consolidation feeling the effects of an economic slowdown more severely than its neighbours. While Taipei Fubon Bank, the main banking subsidiary of this year’s winner, Fubon Financial Holdings, reported results as modest as the rest of its peers, the group as a whole is much better placed than many of its rivals. Analysts praise Fubon’s less leveraged, more conservative approach to lending and recognize the scope of the group’s ambitions to move beyond the stagnant domestic market. The group’s acquisition of ING’s life insurance business for $600 million is well regarded, and the bank’s move onto the Chinese mainland through its 19.9% stake in Xiamen Commercial Bank bodes well for the future.

Mongolia’s banks had a decent year, with leading firms such as Golomt Bank and Trade Development Bank of Mongolia demonstrating steady growth. The latter firm is Khan Bank’s closest rival for the title of best bank, but Khan Bank once again had the strongest performance with its return on equity of 31% and return on assets of 2.9% both the highest among its peers. The bank has continued its strategy of building a sound deposit base, with core deposits up $144.3 million (37%) to $535.9 million. Khan Bank also managed to improve its already sound capital adequacy ratio of 11.4% to 12.4%. As well as growing its core deposits, the firm has begun to spread its wings with the announcement of international partnerships. It has established close relationships with the major Korean banks to cater to Mongolians working in that country, and has launched trade finance partnerships with top franchises such as ING, Japan’s SMBC and Commerzbank of Germany after joining both the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s and International Finance Corporation’s trade finance programmes.

Even the very best banks in the Middle East have felt the force of the financial crisis. At the end of the first quarter of this year Arab Bank announced that it had posted pre-tax profits of $216 million, down from $272 million for the same period a year earlier. Partly the difference is explained by a one-off boost to profits last year through the sale of branches in Cyprus. Still, as Arab Bank’s chairman and chief executive, Abdel Hamid Shoman, admits: "Anybody that says that they won’t be affected by the crisis is not telling the truth." Arab Bank, though, has fared much better than many other financial institutions. Even with the fall in profits, the bank has improved its capital base and liquidity position.

Banks in the Middle East know how to cope with a crisis: Lebanese banks’ profit as the country teeters on civil war; Iranian institutions deftly avoid US financial sanctions.

HSBC: The crisis showed up which banks the markets thought were safest – and HSBC came out firmly on top

DnB Nor is Norway’s leading financial services group, with more than 2.3 million retail customers and 200,000 corporate customers. It runs Norway’s largest internet banks, dnbnor.no and postbanken.no, with more than 1 million users. It is also Norway’s largest life and pension insurance company, with about 1 million customers, and Norway’s largest asset management operation, with more than 600,000 mutual fund customers in Norway.

It was another miserable 12 months for Japan’s banks, with the three megabanks, the tier below them and the smaller regional banks all suffering as domestic bankruptcies from the plummeting economy caused NPL levels to rise and Lehman Brothers-related investments turned bad. Total losses from bad loans among the top banks amounted to ¥1.7 trillion ($17.6 billion) and the three largest financial groups – MUFG, Mizuho FG and SMFG – all reported heavy losses for the year. That left Resona Holdings, Euromoney’s best bank in Japan in 2007, as this year’s winner after the group posted a profit of ¥123 billion despite the hellish environment.

HSBC: HSBC has benefited from financials’ and corporates’ desire to have contingency arrangements, while its solid balance sheet is an added attraction

Worries are growing that Equity Bank, the bank that showed how profit could be made from collateralizing cows and by offering services to the rural poor, is overstretching itself. In an era when tourism revenues are dipping and political concerns linger, a more uncertain market is looking increasingly towards Equity Bank’s bigger, perhaps more stable rival, Kenya Commercial Bank.