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Bank atlas 1999: The world's biggest banks

Bank atlas 1999: The world's biggest banks

Bank atlas 1999: The world's biggest banks

An extensive audit of 18 Russian commercial banks shows that many bigger ones are - by western standards - clinically dead. International lenders have lost patience. They want to push Russia's central bank and government into a major overhaul of the sector. But they lack the leverage to enforce it. And the central bank lacks the will. John van Schaik reports.

Banking in Indonesia has a split personality. In the retail sector foreign banks are introducing state-of-the-art services and buying up bargains among local banks to expand their networks. Local commercial banks are in a much gloomier situation. The costs of recapitalization are rising, influential creditors are resisting attempts to restructure and the bankruptcy court has proved ineffective. Maggie Ford reports

For international equity investors these days, working without an array of technological equipment is inconceivable. When Art Lerner began actively to invest in 1969, though, his main tool was the telephone. Even then it could be frustrating. "Back when I started, the companies we visited were usually shareholder unfriendly. There was very little information or research material available - some annual reports didn't even have an English version. You could ring up a company in, say, the Netherlands and have the CFO say to you: 'What do you care for? We run the company, we make money, and that's that.' Of course, they were salaried staff, and had no incentive to improve the share price."

Our annual Bank Atlas, produced in conjunction with Fitch IBCA, shows the impact of bank consolidation. Bank of America is now the world's biggest bank by shareholder equity.

Over the years Euromoney has reported on the events that shook the market, described the innovations that went on to become standard market features and profiled the most influential individuals and institutions in the world of finance. We also dropped a few clangers. Michael Peterson spent an afternoon trawling through the archives in the dusty vaults of Euromoney HQ and offers a selection of judgements and predictions, some wildly wrong, some amazingly prescient.

Prompted by the ravages of Hurricane Mitch and the crisis in emerging markets, Central America is changing - fast. As the crisis in Brazil finally explodes the myth of monetary sovereignty, Central American capital markets and institutions are being restructured in line with global developments. Michael Peterson toured Central America's banking sector, stopping off in Costa Rica to interview the president.