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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.

Although neither of Switzerland’s biggest banking groups have covered themselves in glory over the past 12 months, in the domestic market things have been more characteristically stable.

In recent months, Brazil achieved its long-cherished goal of investment-grade status, awarded by both Fitch and Standard & Poor’s. Then there was Santander’s acquisition of Banco Real from ABN Amro, making the Spanish bank the biggest foreign player in the market.

7 the average percentage return of US IPOs one month after listing so far this year.

Liquid real estate Issue 06

From his grand office overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Jim Ovia, managing director and chief executive of Zenith Bank, can look down with pride at some of his and the bank’s achievements. While most banks in Nigeria claim to be the biggest or the best, Zenith, by just about every measure, whether it is asset quality or balance sheet strength, innovation, use of new technology or just brand recognition, emerges as the best in the country. Last year it picked up a BB– international credit rating from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch – the highest possible, equal to the sovereign credit rating; was granted a full banking licence in the UK, the first Nigerian bank to achieve that in 25 years; and set up a proprietary data services provider to link all its branches in real time. The bank is setting up subsidiaries or representative offices in South Africa, Dubai and China, as well as branches across sub-Saharan Africa. What is behind the bank’s success? Some say it is the fact that Zenith has grown organically and not through merger and acquisition like other Nigerian banks. Much of the credit is attributable to the vision and drive of Ovia and his deputy managing director, Godwin Emefiele. Ovia obviously doesn’t spend much time enjoying the sea view.

Goldman Sachs

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.

The firm appears to have timed the launch of its upgraded option system to perfection.

The Ukranian economy has been coping well under the pressures of domestic political uncertainty and global financial turmoil. In 2007, GDP grew by 7.3%, while retail sales increased by 28.8%. And Ukrsibbank has continued along its own growth curve. Majority owned by BNP Paribas since April 2006, the bank is the third largest in the Ukraine in terms of assets, shareholders equity and loan portfolio. Although PrivatBank and Raiffeisen Bank Aval are bigger, they cannot match Ukrsibbank’s dynamism.