The Asia-Pacific region retains its global dominance, with the most banks in the Top 1000 and the biggest share of Tier 1 capital.

Emerging markets are coming up trumps in terms of bank cost-to-income ratios, with Africa the top ranking region and Qatar the top ranking country.  

Although Brazil's largest four banks remain well clear of the pack in Latin America, there were promising developments in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela in 2012.

The Highest Movers table of the Top 1000 has had a distinctly Chinese feel to it in recent years, but 2013's ranking shows rapid growth among financial institutions the world over, including in Europe's crisis economies.

There is a new largest bank in North America, with Bank of America losing ground to JPMorgan.

The Tier 1 capital of the 25 largest central and eastern European banks climbed by 30% in this year's ranking, led by Russia's largest bank Sberbank. Meanwhile, consumer banking operations across the region are prominent among the most profitable and the fastest growing banks in the region.

Risk weightings on assets have increased for many emerging-market regions, but the very low level of risk-weighted assets in Europe looks disconnected from the deteriorating asset quality in the region.

A difficult economic climate combined with a number of financial services sector scandals have served to deter investors from making foreign direct investments in Europe, resulting in declines in inflows across the region in 2012.