At the end of April, Romania’s parliament approved a bill allowing borrowers to walk away from their mortgage debts. The Banker looks at mortgage holdings of the largest banks in the country.  

London edges out Singapore for inward FDI among IFCs, and is way out in front for outward investment.

Unprecedentedly, ICBC, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China are all in the top five banks by Tier 1 capital worldwide. But the good news does not end there for Chinese banks, with many putting in a strong performance further down the ranking.

A patchy economic performance in western Europe in 2015 saw its lenders slide further down the global rankings. HSBC is clinging on to its global top 10 position, however, while there is some good news for Greek and Italian lenders.

The global capital assets ratio average has improved on The Banker's 2015 ranking, with Bahrain's First Energy Bank leading the way.

Risk-weighted assets have jumped in North America as a result of the move among its banks to Basel III. Elsewhere, western Europe also saw an RWA-to-total assets ratio percentage rise.

As was the case in the 2015 ranking, China and the US are producing the fastest growing banks in the world, with the US's LegacyTexas Group leading the way in first, ahead of Taiwan's KGI Bank and China's Bank of Tangshan.

Brazilian lenders still monopolise the top of the Latin American and Caribbean table, while banks from Panama, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and Mexico benefit from instability in the Venezuelan economy.

Middle Eastern banks continue to show impressive Tier 1 capital growth, with Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank and Qatar National Bank breaking into the global top 90 for the first time. Among the rest, National Bank of Abu Dhabi is the region's big winner.

As has been the case in most recent rankings, European lenders have continued to wrestle with asset quality issues.