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Amman is the somewhat unexpected home of what, by some measures, is the largest bank in the Middle East – Arab Bank.

The past 12 months have not been easy for banks in Nicaragua. A surge in inflation, which peaked at 126.6% in December 2007, to one of the highest rates in the world, has adversely affected the purchasing power of banking clients across the country. This has affected the banks’ non-performing loan portfolios and has tested the strength of Nicaragua’s financial institutions.

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%.

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

Credit crunch? What credit crunch? This could be the Middle East’s favourite mantra. But for bad as well as good, bankers in the region are acutely aware of events in the rest of the world.

The departure of Andre Esteves from UBS need not be a big setback for the Swiss bank’s fortunes in Brazil.

BNP Paribas

The restructuring of Cheyne’s SIV could provide a blueprint for other stricken vehicles; Blackrock in the frame to manage StanChart’s SIV.

HSBC is still the best bank in Hong Kong and shows no sign of relinquishing its dominant position in its home market. The bank extended its lead over the competition when measured by profits – quite some feat given how far in front it already was. Profits before tax grew 42% in 2007 to HK$ 53.8 billion ($6.9 billion), more than double those of the nearest competitor.

Merrill Lynch has launched an investable index that the bank’s researchers say gives investors cleaner and more efficient access to US equity market volatility than products linked to the present benchmark, the Chicago Board Option Exchange’s Vix (Volatility Index). The Merrill Lynch US Forward Equity Variance Rolling (FEVR) index is designed to measure the performance of a long S&P 500 volatility strategy and follows the launch last year of a similar index in Europe, based on the volatility of the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50.

DBS is the bank that every Singaporean grows up with: almost the entire population are consumer customers. That legacy hasn’t always been of assistance to DBS as it has tried to transform itself from a sleepy deposit bank to a regional powerhouse. However, it has given it the most powerful franchise in the country.

'The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable' is an excellent read, but anyone who talks about the credit crunch in these terms is not being intellectually honest.