The 'second cut' of this year's Top 1000 reveals in stark contrast the disparate fortunes of the world's domestic financial systems. While the US and much of Europe has seen profitability decimated and numerous bank collapses or forced rescue mergers, other regions have been relatively insulated from the financial meltdown. Many systems have remained extremely profitable - and some have profited specifically because of the crisis elsewhere.
US and European banks are largely notable by their absence from the top 25 global banks by profit on Tier 1 capital and profit on assets. Only two US and one European bank are present in the top 25 by return on capital, and only three US firms made it into the top 25 by profit on assets. Instead, these rankings feature much smaller banks from the periphery of the Top 1000; banks from Japan, China, Brazil, Turkey, Nigeria, Iran and Panama. The average return on assets (ROA) for US banks is just 0.05%; in Nigeria, it is 3.02%.
