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.
For years, Austrian lenders Erste Bank and Raiffeisen Bank have enjoyed strong profits at their central and eastern European operations, but with growth in these economies slowing, more recent results suggest that they may need to rethink their strategies in the region.