The need for a multilateral bail out of eurozone member Slovenia will depend on the state of its troubled banking sector, which lost a significant proportion of its capital in 2011.

Despite contracting investment banking fees in Europe, Turkey, Slovakia and Croatia have bucked the trend with impressive growth.

Taken as a single entity, Germany's savings bank sector is the second largest financial institution in the country. And, unlike the country's top 10 banks, it has been growing since 2008.

Hong Kong was the most attractive international financial centre in Asia-Pacific in 2012, with more than $6bn-worth of foreign investment in the special administrative region.

Three Singaporean lenders occupy the top three spots in The Banker's Association of South-east Asian Nations banks ranking by Tier 1 capital for the year ending 2011, and the same three institutions also led the way in terms of pre-tax profits.

A number of foreign banks scaled back operations in Russia after the financial crisis, but those that remain are generating very high returns in many cases.

The Cypriot banking sector was more than four times the size of the country's economy at the end of 2011.

Panama's banks hold their lead as the biggest banks by Tier 1 capital in Central America.

Hong Kong overtook Singapore in 2012 as Asia's leading financial centre for inward FDI.