Global banking is a very unequal business. The lion’s share of Tier 1 capital is dominated by the three pillars of Asia-Pacific, western Europe and North America, leaving the emerging markets of central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean on the sidelines with a combined share of less than 10%.
While for several years emerging market economies were growing at rates that would have seen them catching up with the big powerhouses, this trend has stagnated or gone into reverse as commodity price have fallen and other woes have led to slowdown and recession. As the Top 1000 is compiled in US dollars, sharp falls in many emerging market currencies such as the Brazilian real and the Russian rouble have accentuated this effect in the rankings.
