Many German banks had their fingers badly burnt in the financial crisis, having disastrously expanded into areas such as Spanish real estate and global shipping. As a result, the country's private banks, sparkassen and landesbanken have largely reverted to type, happy with unspectacular but predictable growth in an oversaturated domestic market.
Accusations of money laundering levelled at Banca Privada d’Andorra by the US authorities threatened to destabilise the country's banking sector, so the government had to act quickly to contain the crisis. Now, Andorran authorities are keen to show that this was an isolated case and that the wider banking sector is both closely governed and performing successfully.
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.
The Turkish banking sector is in good health, although the country's lower economic growth, political developments at home and abroad, and the continued impact of financial regulation on retail banking are acting as a brake on growth and profits.