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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Public Bank no longer has this award so easily to itself as the CIMB Group continues to develop and grow, but for now it is still Malaysia’s clear leader pretty much any way you look at it.

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.

In Morocco, BMCE and Attijariwafa have led the way in expanding in the rest of Africa. BMCE, for example, has acquired or set up operations, sometimes through its London-based investment bank, Medicapital, in about 20 African countries in the past few years.

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

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

In the battle of the Standards, Standard Chartered Bank came out on top of Standard Bank. When Standard Bank acquired 90% of Uganda Commercial Bank in February 2002 it became one of the country’s biggest banks, gaining 67 branches.