Russian banks have suffered through the stormy financial conditions of the past two years, but its lenders remain the largest in the central and eastern Europe region. However, Romania, and Banca Transilvania in particular, provide the region's good news story.
Its share of global return on capital may have fallen, but Asia-Pacific still leads in profits. On the rise are western Europe, North America and the Middle East, while Latin America and the caribbean, central and eastern Europe and Africa all recorded smaller shares.
UK banks continue to lose their global position as Chinese banks power ahead, according to The Banker’s latest ranking of Top 1000 banks. HSBC fell from fifth place to ninth, Barclays from 12th to 13th and Royal Bank of Scotland from 15th to 18th as they restructured and slimmed down in the wake of the financial crisis. The ranking is based on capital strength.
Greece aside, European banks have sustained a recovery in their performance in the 2015 ranking. But the willingness of the largest European players to act as global banks is clearly declining and emerging market champions are not quite ready to assume the cross-border mantle just yet.