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Korea’s banks face a difficult couple of years: the market has become extremely competitive, and analysts agree that raising profitability will be tough. As in Japan, the answer for the top banks might lie in expanding elsewhere in Asia, where there is still plenty of room for growth. Shinhan Bank, which retains the award for best bank in Korea that it won last year, has already begun that process by opening Shinhan Khmer Bank in Cambodia, as well as a branch in Beijing and a fourth in Dong Nai in Vietnam.

Institutional investment in commodity markets is boon not bane.

Man Group has bought a 25% stake in alternative investment manager Nephila Capital. The Bermuda-based manager specializes in insurance-based instruments such as catastrophe bonds, weather derivatives and insurance-linked securities.

Barclays can normally expect to feature more than once in our African banking awards. So it is unusual that this year its only award is in Zambia. It is a place that the bank knows well, having been there for nearly 100 years. There are many new banks operating in Africa, but none so far in Zambia that impresses as much as Barclays. It continues to expand its branches and operations, with more than 70 offices and 1,200 staff. The liberalization of Zambia’s trade and exchange rate has increased opportunities – but also competition.

Very few banks can claim a record as good as BNP Paribas’ over the past year.

Goldman Sachs

Millennium BIM was born from a strategic partnership between the Mozambican government and Banco Commercial Português. It is part of the Millennium BCP group, which has branches in Portugal, Angola, China, Macau, Poland, Turkey and the US. It has the lion’s share of the Mozambique banking market, with more than 500,000 clients and a market share of 40%. Net income in 2007 reached MT1.4 billion ($60 million), up nearly 37% from 2006. Millennium BIM has nearly 100 branches throughout the country. A private institution, it has equity investors salivating at the thought of when it might launch an IPO.

Goldman Sachs

The winner of the best bank in Mexico is the fifth-largest bank in the market but it stands out from the crowd. As the country’s largest non-foreign owned bank, the aptly named "strong bank of Mexico", leads the market in terms of innovation. Banorte has opened the eyes of its competitors to the securitization market, the booming agribusiness markets and the mortgage origination market.

Raiffeisen Bank managed to extend its market leadership in Albania, despite increased competition from such rivals as Banka Kombetare Tregtare and American Bank of Albania. Raiffeisen Bank Albania is firmly ranked as the number one bank by assets, deposits and loans, on both a corporate and retail basis. The bank continues to extend its client coverage and now has 97 branches, almost three times those of its nearest rival; 154 ATMs, double its closest competitor’s; and more than 400 point-of-sales terminals. The bank also extended its mobile banking team, reaching out to previously unbanked sections of the population. Thanks to this expansion, Raiffeisen Bank managed to grow its customer base by 14% in 2007, which helped it double its retail lending, while corporate loans rose by 45%. Growth did not come at the cost of profitability, however. The bank reported a cost-income ratio of 40% and a pre-tax return on equity of 58%.

In most countries in Asia the larger local banks tend to dominate Euromoney’s best bank awards but it has been some years since that happened in Japan. Choosing a best bank in Japan has been a tricky business for some time. The three megabanks have had well-documented problems with weak balance sheets, unadventurous managers and poorly diversified strategies for the past decade. This year, two things have changed: the megabanks are in strong positions relative to their global peer group for once, and some of the smaller, more dynamic players, such as Shinsei, have been struggling.

"It is a lot more difficult to raise money than people think"