A bank's loans-to-deposits ratio is a good indicator of how prudent its funding strategy is - too high can mean too risky, but too low suggests it may not be achieving its full potential. This year's Top 1000 World Banks show that western Europe heads the list with the highest national average LTD and China has the lowest.
In the past decade, foreign investment and natural resources wealth have transformed the banking landscape in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Banker's latest ranking for the region shows which countries have benefited the most from this change.
Singapore is the world’s third highest ranked International Finance Centre, according to The Banker’s 2010 ranking. But in these days of volatile capital flows and worries about bank safety, how should a small country manage itself as an IFC so as to maximise the benefits and minimise the risk?