Standard Bank remains Africa's largest lender, though its position has been weakened by the South African rand's poor performance against the US dollar.

Four Chinese banks are now in the global top 10, with Industrial Commercial Bank of China making significant headway by moving into third position, pushing HSBC out of the top three.

The earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster that hit Japan in 2011 does not seem to have affected its banks too dramatically, though its largest lender has been passed by two Chinese banks in the overall Top 1000 ranking.

When the Asian behemoths of China and Japan are removed form the Asia-Pacific ranking, Australia's 'big four' banks come to the fore, though Singapore and South Korea also feature prominently.

Brazilian banks still dominate the top four positions in The Banker's Latin American ranking, but Colombia's lenders have made significant headway, with three of the country's banks moving up the top 20 Latin America ranking, including Banco de Bogotá, which climbed five places to fifth.

Asia-Pacific is the most numerous global region among this year's Top 1000 ranking, with its growth coming largely at the expense of western Europe and North America.

Central and eastern Europe experienced Tier 1 capital falls across the board this year, but Russia's banks predictably dominate the top tier of firms and also witnessed a rise in new players in the regional top table.

As the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 54% of total global profits, it is no surprise that no non-emerging bank appears in the top banks by profits-on-average capital.

Despite the uncertainty casting a shadow over global markets, the capital-to-asstes ratio (CAR) of banking systems across much of the world remain stable. But it is a different story in Western Europe where CARs remain well below the global average.