In addition, this year for the first time The Banker has gathered more information about risk-weighted asset volumes and their relationship to total assets, which, broken down by region, highlights the challenges facing banks in different parts of the world. This information was supplied by 589 banks, representing more than half of the Top 1000 universe.
Whereas last year more than half of the respondent banks (61%) were reporting that their volumes of impaired assets were 2% or less of total assets, this year only 44% of banks were in this happy situation, meaning that more of the Top 1000 banks have higher percentages of impaired assets.
Meanwhile, the number of banks reporting that impaired assets were more than 10% of total assets has increased from 8% to 14% of the total.
Risk-weighted assets in western Europe account for 53% of the world total but represent only 38% of these banks' own total assets, suggesting that some balance sheet restructuring has taken place.
By contrast, banks in eastern Europe recognise risk-weighted assets as 85% of total assets, thus acknowledging that loan problems may still lie ahead for this region.