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Thailand’s political climate is somewhat more settled than when this award was given last year, but rising energy costs and inflation worries mean a tough economic environment. There are positive signs in the banking sector, though, and the winner of this year’s award for best bank, Siam Commercial Bank, has shown strong growth. The bank, the country’s third largest by assets, posted the highest growth rate among Thai banks in 2007, with net profits up 31%. Having raised lending rates in June this year in response to economic concerns, SCB might struggle to repeat a stellar first quarter in which it posted record profits of Bt6.79 billion ($204 million – up 68.7% quarter on quarter), but its performance over the past 12 months has been strong.

Central and eastern Europe’s newest country can count on one of the region’s most experienced banks to deliver high-quality financial services. Raiffeisen Bank has established a strong market position: it leads in retail, corporate and SME lending volumes. In 2007, total lending at Raiffeisen rose almost 50% from €222 million to reach €330 million. The bank is also playing a leading role in attracting money into the official economy, with total deposits rising to €396 million from €310 million. The bank is profitable as well as important to economic and social development, with net profit rising from €10.79 million in 2006 to €14.68 million in 2007.

Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias, and the senior executives of the three leading public banks in Costa Rica, Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (BNCR), Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) and Banco Crédito Agricola de Cartago (Bancredito), continued talks in March about a potential merger.

After suffering from several departures to local rivals, especially VTB, Deutsche Bank has sought to bolster its Moscow office with new hires. Alex Bronin is appointed head of emerging markets structuring for Russia/CIS, Valeri Pouchni, head of rates and FX trading, Andrey Yumatov, head of corporate derivative sales, Alex Danylenko, head of local-currency bond trading, and Diana Nikolova as a senior structurer focusing on Russian structured credit.

The award for best bank in Asia this year goes to Pakistan’s largest lender by market cap, Muslim Commercial Bank. Listed in Karachi and with strong financial links to the Gulf region and southeast Asia, MCB has in recent years transformed itself into one of Asia’s strongest lenders. It’s not the biggest, but it is large, and it is growing fast, particularly in such areas as asset management, retail banking and Islamic finance. Under the watchful eye of its respected founder and chairman, Mian Mohammad Mansha, MCB has become a genuinely powerful lender, the most influential in Pakistan, with revenues rising despite the global credit crunch and a branch network expected to top 1,000 by the end of this year, from 670 a year previously.

Liquid real estate Issue 05

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) of India often plays second fiddle to its larger rival, ICICI, but over the past year the Mumbai-listed institution has come of age. In acquiring smaller domestic rival Centurion Bank of Punjab for $2.23 billion in February 2008, HDFC stole a march on ICICI, kickstarting a hoped-for and much-needed period of consolidation in India’s cluttered and largely underperforming banking sector. Investors clearly like the lender. HDFC’s Mumbai-listed common stock rose by 2% in the year to end-May 2008 – a solid performance in the midst of a troubled Indian marketplace. By contrast, ICICI’s Mumbai stock sank 17% over the same period. HDFC also posted consolidated net profit up 56% to Rs21.3 billion ($632 million); ICICI’s net profit rose by a rather more meagre 34%. This award is not simply about contrasts, however. HDFC has earned its success through continued, strong, steady, hard work, say analysts and bankers.

Scotiabank Jamaica has actively pushed its small business banking unit, launched in May 2007. Four products have now been introduced – two credit cards, a non-revolving loan and a credit line for small businesses. As of March 2008 a total of 3,172 credit cards from across the banks’ businesses were in circulation.

The belief that Libor is an actual rate at which banks lend substantial money to one another is a façade that the credit crunch has torn down with a vengeance.

FSA forces disclosure of significant short positions in companies undertaking rights issues while issuers look for a quicker route to market.

Iran’s biggest banks, which are state owned, are coming under increasing pressure because of US financial sanctions.

Getting to the top is easy, it’s staying there that’s difficult. Not that it seems to be a problem for National Bank of Kuwait. The firm is universally recognized as one of a handful of Middle Eastern banks that sets the standard for others to follow.