An almost frenzied focus on boosting capital in 2009 has meant that Bank of America (BOA) leapfrogged JPMorgan Chase in this year's rankings to become the world's biggest bank by Tier 1 capital.

Despite pulling itself out of the worst recession the country has seen since the Second World War, Japan remains a deeply troubled economy saddled with a fiscal position that has in recent months gone from bad to worse: indeed, so parlous is Japan's predicament that in June the country's new prime minister, Naoto Kan, warned that the once mighty Asian economy may be staring a Greek-style public debt crisis in the face.

Every year the Top 1000 Banks ranking delivers new and startling insights into the creeping dominance of the Chinese banking sector and this year does not disappoint.

Looking at this year's Top 25 central and eastern European (CEE) banks, one could be forgiven for thinking the region's transition to a market economy had gone into reverse.

Last year, the financial crisis had little impact on the top 25 western European banks.

Many Western banks are rebounding from the huge losses of 2008 and have strengthened their grasp on the top of the rankings, but elsewhere the pain is just beginning. Philip Alexander reports.

Forty years after BankAmerica topped The Banker's first global bank rankings in 1970, the US-based bank has once again taken the number one spot in 2010. While Bank of America, JPMorgan and Barclays all participated in 1970 and 2010, this 40th anniversary of the listings shows that much else has changed in the sector. The Banker's editor emeritus Stephen Timewell reports.