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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.

Being a big fish in a small pond helps Fortis stay ahead of the competition in the Grand Duchy.

Liquid real estate Issue 05

As the structured finance market struggles to reinvent itself, the orgy of recrimination among constituents is intensifying.

Raiffeisen Bank maintains its position at the top of the banking pile in Bosnia & Herzegovina. It is able to serve all sections of the community throughout both the Srpska Republika and the Croat-Muslim Federation and is the largest individual bank in the entire country. In 2007, it increased its corporate customer base by 13%, and retail clients rose by 17%. These increases allowed Raiffeisen to grow its assets by 18.8% in 2007, thanks to strong loan growth, especially in the corporate sector, where it increased by 43%, far above the market average. Thanks to its 99 branches the bank also performed strongly on the retail side, accounting for 21.43% of lending, while it maintained its number one position in the card issuance business on the back of the expansion of its ATM and point-of-sales network.

Drake Management, the $11 billion global macro fund, has said it will be shutting its two remaining funds after poor performance. Its largest fund dropped 24% last year. Anthony Faillace, Drake’s CIO, has built up a solid reputation, however, after the fund returned more than 40% in 2006. The firm is expected to create some successor funds for investors that want to stay with it.

The Dutch banking market has experienced unprecedented change with Fortis’s acquisition of ABN Amro’s local businesses and ING’s decision to merge its Postbank and ING brands.

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

Malaysia’s CIMB has finally closed a deal in Thailand after it was outbid by ICBC on a previous attempt to buy ACL Bank. CIMB will now acquire 42% of BankThai, and, pending regulatory approval, will then scoop up the bank’s remaining equity, paying around Bt2.10 per share for stock last seen trading at Bt1.32. BankThai is in desperate need of funding after suffering heavy losses on overseas CDO investments. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has put CIMB and its holding company BCHB on Creditwatch with negative implications, saying it needs to discuss fundng and integration plans with the group before reversing that move.

In a difficult year for Austria’s largest banks, Erste Bank stands out for having made notable progress in its domestic corporate banking units where net profits in the first quarter of 2008 were up as much as 69.5% for SMEs on the same period the year before and net profits from large corporate clients rose 50.8%, driven by improved commission income from the restructured business banking division.

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.

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.