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There are always four banks in with a shout of winning the best bank in Africa award: Standard Chartered, Barclays, Citi and Standard Bank. While none of the other banks has done anything particularly wrong, one candidate stands out: South Africa’s Standard Bank. It has helped instigate the acquisition of a 20% stake in itself through a R36.7 billion ($5.5 billion) cash offer by ICBC, China’s biggest lender and the largest bank in the world by market capitalization. It is more of a marriage than a partnership, and suggests that China plans to be in Africa for the long run. It is the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese bank and the largest foreign investment in Africa. The deal was negotiated in quite a short time frame. The first approach was made by the Chinese at the IMF meeting in Washington DC at the end of October. The offer was put to the board. There have been shareholder meetings in both South Africa and China.

Underlying the headlines are distortions in the market that can be overcome by liberalization.

Chinatrust remains the best positioned bank in Taiwan. It has been smartest and most successful in building businesses that generate fee rather than interest income, particularly wealth management, the one great cash cow left in Taiwanese banking. In 2007, the fee income ratio at Chinatrust hit 42.48%, among the best in the industry; the share of the national wealth management client market has grown from 11% to 18% since 2004, according to the bank itself, with assets of more than NT$1 trillion ($33 billion) for 320,000 wealth management customers by the end of 2007. Revenue from wealth management grew 133% between 2006 and 2007.

Eurobank EFG, Greece’s second-largest bank, impressed the markets with strong growth at home and abroad, where it is building an impressive franchise in southeastern Europe.

In Europe and Asia, UBS is the closest challenger to the top two prime brokerage players but Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are arguably now the best placed to grow. Neil Wilson reports.

It is in times of market turmoil that the investment and commitment made by banks to their business lines over previous years become most apparent. For those banks that better dodged the sub-prime bullet, the past 12 months have afforded them this recognition. For these banks, avoiding the inevitable navel-gazing and restructuring to which less fortunate competitors have had to succumb has meant they can continue to do what they are supposed to do – focus on clients. Three banks on Wall Street stand out as having gained yet greater credibility as they navigated through the volatile market conditions and tightening credit environment that dominated the second half of 2007 and beginning of 2008: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

The past year has been difficult for some of Bahrain’s leading banks. Both Gulf International Bank and Arab Banking Corporation fell victim to the US sub-prime crisis: GIB undertook a $966 million write-down, and Arab Banking Corporation wrote down $230 million.

Despite Banco de Chile’s best efforts, Banco Santander retains the title of best bank in Chile for another year. For 2007, the bank registered a record profit of $624 million, up 8.1% from the previous year – and faster than the 8% growth for the Chilean financial system.

Tatra banka continues to gain market share in Slovakia, achieving 15.4% in 2007, up from 14.8% and 13.1% in 2006 and 2005 respectively. Total assets and net income both grew by 39% in 2007, driven in particular by strong growth in retail banking. For example, mortgage and home equity lending volumes rose by 100% last year. The bank’s increased focus on small-business lending also paid dividends, with loans to the sector growing by 300%. Tatra banka also scored a notable success in the asset management field, with the bank leveraging its 128-strong branch network to boost net deposits into its mutual funds by more than 200%, with overall assets rising by 44.7%. Tatra Asset Management continues to launch innovative products covering such areas as real estate investment. It is the leading asset manager, with a 35.5% market share.

Political relations between Greece and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are strained but the strong financial and management support from owner National Bank of Greece has helped to ensure that Stopanska Banka Skopje remains the leading force in FYROM’s banking sector. In 2007, the bank posted a 24% return on equity on the back of gross profit of €19.6 million equivalent, according to International Accounting Standards. The bank’s total assets rose to €897.2 million at year-end 2007, up 31% on 2006. Total deposits reached €707.1 million, up 31.2% on 2006. At the end of 2007, about a million Macedonian citizens had accounts with Stopanska Banka Skopje, more than half of the country’s population.

A part of the RZB group since 2003, Priorbank is one of the two largest banks in Belarus, alongside last year’s winner, Belagroprombank. It is also the only privately owned bank in Belarus’s top six banks by size. It made significant strides forward in 2007: assets grew by 48%, loans by 44% and deposits by 32%. The bank gained more than 134,000 new customers last year, bringing its customer base above the 750,000 mark, while the number of branches grew from 61 in 2006 to 81 by the end of 2007. Return on equity was up by one-quarter, while profit after tax rose by one-third.

Bank Muscat dominates the Omani banking market, and it appears unwilling to let go of that position. In 2007, the bank’s total shareholders’ equity doubled to $1.6 billion. Its total assets grew 40% to $11 billion. Its operating income grew 30% to $500 billion, and its net income grew by a quarter to $324 billion. In the first quarter of 2008, the bank’s profit rose almost 40%.