The Tier 1 capital of the 25 largest central and eastern European banks climbed by 30% in this year's ranking, led by Russia's largest bank Sberbank. Meanwhile, consumer banking operations across the region are prominent among the most profitable and the fastest growing banks in the region.
Singapore's big three lenders may still be dominating the top positions in the Association of South-east Asian Nations ranking by Tier 1 capital by a considerable margin, but Thai and Malaysian banks now occupy six of the top 10 spots, while Indonesia's institutions are recording the region's strongest profitability ratios.
Arab banks offset the turmoil of the Arab Spring and offered a robust performance in 2011 with impressive growth across the key financial indicators. And with minimal exposure to the eurozone crisis, the region's banks are expected to continue their recovery from the global financial crisis.
While The Banker's Top 1000 World Banks ranking published every July gives an insightful and unique snapshot of the state of the global banking market, our ranking of those banks featuring just below the ranking gives an excellent indication of the way in which the market is heading, and which countries and regions are on the rise.
While the Asia-Pacific region's growth story over the past few decades has been powered by Japan and then China, at least as far as banking is concerned, when these two countries are removed from The Banker's Asia-Pacific rankings, it is Australia's banks that come to the fore.