TOP 1000 WORLD BANKS

摘要

The 2002/07 period represents the greatest economic boom the world has seen, and in the four years to end-2006 the world's banks continued to produce record profits and increased profitability year on year. But in 2007, the onset of the US subprime crisis and the subsequent financial crunch forced many banks, such as Citigroup and UBS, into meltdown. So did 2007 spell the end of the global banking bonanza and the beginning of a long bleak period for banks, or is the current financial crisis and economic slowdown just a US and European phenomenon and a mere blip in the financial industry's ongoing global charge? While analysts argue how the decline in real growth in the US economy from 2.9% in 2006 to 2.2% in 2007 and into possible recession this year will impact globally, The Banker's 2008 Top 1000 World Banks rankings indicate that the banking industry is far more resilient than crisis headlines suggest. The Banker's 2008 ranking (based around end-2007 results) shows the aggregate pre-tax profits of the Top 1000 banks were hit by the downturn, but not dramatically. While aggregate profits rose by about 20% in each of the previous four rankings (21.9% last year), profits in the 2008 ranking stayed flat, declining by 0.7% to $780.8bn compared with $786.3bn last year.