Awards 2008

Macedonia

NLB Tutunska bankaOwned by Slovenia’s Nova Ljubljanska banka, NLB Tutunska banka of Macedonia enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2007, with profits rising 39%, and return on equity climbing to 16.2%, from 15.1% in 2006.

Japan

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial GroupUnlike many of the major Japanese banks, Sumitomo Mitsui is the only one with positive growth in all major indicators, with 4.6% growth in net profits, 12.3% growth in Tier 1 capital and 11% growth in assets in the year to end-March 2008.

Costa Rica

ScotiabankIn October 2007, Costa Rica’s Scotiabank merged with Corporacion Interfin, culminating in one of the most important mergers in Costa Rican banking history.

Colombia

BBVA ColombiaFollowing the 2006 merger with Banco Granahorrar, 2007 marked the beginning of BBVA Colombia’s Plan Novo, which is aimed at identifying synergies and improving processes to both reduce cost and improve service levels.

China

ICBCICBC, the largest provider of corporate banking and personal banking and the leading provider of credit cards, debit cards and custodian services in China, sustained significant profit growth in 2007 along with expansion in other key indicators.

Chile

Banco de ChileFor Banco de Chile, 2007 saw the continuation of its strategy to better segment its client groups, develop new services and products, and to harness technology to improve growth, efficiency and profitability.

Chad

Ecobank ChadSince Ecobank bought International Bank for Africa in Chad in August 2006 the bank has made good progress. Ecobank has implanted its successful formula for banking in Africa and as a result net profits in its second year of operation were $2m, up almost 2000% on the previous year.

Cayman Islands

Cayman National BankCayman National Bank’s (CNB’s) ethos is grounded in the concept of the community bank; its shareholders are primarily Caymanian individuals and companies, and profits are reinvested in the Cayman Islands.

Canada

ScotiabankDuring a tumultuous year, Scotiabank did well to increase net profits by 13% and grow assets by 8.6%. At the same time it achieved an admirable 22% return on equity and increased dividends by 16%. Total shareholder return was 12%, resulting in 13 consecutive years of positive returns.

Cameroon

Ecobank CameroonEcobank Cameroon managed to post a solid set of results in 2007 and continued to build its retail presence across the country.

Cambodia

Cambodian Public BankCambodian Public Bank (Campu Bank) continued to sustain its strong business performance by increasing profitability, maintaining strong asset quality and expanding asset growth.

Burkina Faso

Ecobank BurkinaOperating in one of the world’s most deprived regions, Ecobank Burkina managed to eke out a modest net profit in 2007. Profit growth fell by 3% last year, but the bank did manage to grow its assets by 26%. Return on equity also fell slightly on 2006, to 30% from 33%, and non-performing loans grew by two percentage points to 8%.

Bulgaria

Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria)In an increasingly competitive Bulgarian banking market, Raiffeisenbank won through with the strongest return-on-equity, at more than 38% in 2007. Profits rose by 62%, to a record BgL108m (€55.1m), while assets grew an impressive 53%.

Brunei

Baiduri BankBaiduri Bank Group, which comprises Baiduri Bank and Baiduri Finance for automobile hire-purchase and leasing, initiated a three-pronged strategy for boosting products and income in 2007 and income from fee, commission and service charges plus foreign exchange profit and other income which have increased significantly by 67.1% to BN$26.4m ($18.3m) in 2007.

Brazil

BradescoEarlier this year, Bradesco cemented plans to continue growing and diversifying its business with the acquisitions of Mediservice in February and Agora in March.

Botswana

Stanbic BotswanaSound credit control and a focus on risk management ensured Stanbic Botswana achieved a solid net profit growth of 25% in 2007. As three of its competitors became mired in fraud and bad debt write-offs in 2007, Stanbic managed to grow its loan book by 50% while lowering its non-performing-loan ratio to just 0.19%.

Bosnia-Herzegovina

UniCredit BankUniCredit’s Bosnian subsidiary achieved the best increase in profits of any entrant for the country, rising by almost 20% on the back of a 16% growth in assets.

Bolivia

Banco de Credito de BoliviaIn 2007, Banco de Credito de Bolivia’s (BCP) net profits rose by a staggering 90.2%, having already registered a 35.4% rise in 2006. At the same time it improved Tier 1 capital by 5.1%, grew assets by 25.9% and generated a return on equity of 35.8%.

Bermuda

Bank of BermudaOver the past 12 months, Bank of Bermuda has grown significantly across virtually every metric. It has increased its residential mortgage business by 20%, to more than $1.2bn, funded by increasing deposits.