An investigation into the regulatory priorities for international financial centres. By Mark Davies & David Fiennes.

Established financial centres still lead global rankings but their supremacy is under threat from a growing number of competitors from all over the world. By Silvia Pavoni Investment Editor.

Turbulent times bring with them new opportunities and heightened competition. Ultimately, there will be those International Financial Centres that feel the squeeze, yet there will be others that increase their market share and profit from the credit crunch. By Vince Colvin & John Culliane Deloitte.

UK banks may have taken significant hits on their profit and loss accounts as a result of the subprime crisis, but they have also strengthened their capital and balance sheets significantly.

The Top 1000 is a ranking of the world’s commercial banks. Wherever possible, consolidated figures have been taken for the banking group. However, in the case of bancassurance groups, where possible the figures reflect the banking business only.

The Banker collects cost/income ratio data from banks as a measure of efficiency among banks across the globe.

South Africa’s African Bank, which achieved the highest return on capital among sub-Saharan banks in 2007, at 68.4%, also had the highest disclosed level of non-performing loans (NPLs), at 28.64%.

The global structure of the 2008 Top 1000 World Banks reflects the growing role of the Asian (excluding Japanese) banks, the declining influence of both the US and EU(27) and expansion in a number of emerging economies.

Unlike the past four successive years of record pre-tax profits and strong growth, The Banker’s 2008 Top 1000 World Banks rankings, based largely on fiscal 2007 results, reflected the US subprime crisis and global credit crunch and showed a 0.7% decline in profits to $780.8bn.

Last year, China ended the annual tussle between the US and Germany to bring the highest number of entrants to the Top 1000, contributing seven new arrivals to the list.