Forty-one banks in the Kenyan banking system (plus three non-bank financial institutions and a building society) at the end of 2006 seems rather a lot, given that Tier 1 capital for the top bank in the country was only 12,375m shillings ($178m) at the financial year end.

UBS stunned the financial markets in July by replacing chief executive Peter Wuffli, who has presided over a remarkably successful period at the Swiss bank, with Marcel Rohner, one time head of UBS’ wealth management business.

Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) has agreed to acquire approximately 95% of Ukrsotsbank (USB) in a deal that will further strengthen the presence of the Austrian bank’s parent, UniCredit, in Ukraine. UniCredit already has two subsidiaries in the country, HVB Ukraine and UniCredit Bank.

Fitch finds banks are more likely to fail than to default; and S&P outlines its approach to risk-adjusted capital analysis.

The big Chinese banks have burst into the top echelons of global banking and look set to stay. This year’s Top 1000 shows there are now two banks, ICBC and Bank of China, in the Top 10 world banks in seventh and ninth place, with China Construction Bank close behind in 14th place.

The ING Group of the Netherlands announced in June that it was acquiring Oyak Bank from the Turkish Armed Forces Pension Fund (Oyak) for $2.67bn to capture a share of Turkey’s fast-growing consumer banking business.

IIF suggests Asian growth has peaked while an EFMA report assesses the international domination of the CEE region.

Once again four of the top five US banks have bucked the trend with continued profit growth in the first quarter of 2007 compared with the same quarter last year at a time when the economy is finally showing signs of the much-predicted slowdown.

South Korea is attracting interest in its asset management sector due to the expected enactment of legislation in 2008 that will allow the integration of asset management with other financial services. The Capital Markets Integration Act aims to break down walls separating brokerages, futures trading and asset management.