Lower oil prices have not dried out the huge liquidity available to most Middle East banks, which have continued to produce booming profits and strong growth in the region, especially in the Gulf. As a result, the number of banks from the Middle East region in the 2007 Top 1000 has increased from 83 last year to 94.

Latin America is booming and so are its banks. The demand for commodities from a resource-hungry Asia and the consequent price boost is a gift to a continent that, bar a few countries, is not following the value-added model of economic development.

The latest Top 25 Asian listing emphasises the growing dominance of the big state-controlled Chinese banks. Following their recent record initial public offerings (IPOs), the big three state banks, led by ICBC with a Tier 1 capital of $59.2bn, and followed by Bank of China ($52.5bn) and last year’s leader, China Construction Bank ($42.3bn), have moved far away from their nearest Asian competitor, National Australia Bank with $17.5bn.

Japan’s banks may be out of hot water in terms of reducing non-performing loans (NPLs) as a percentage of their overall loan portfolios, but they continue to struggle to grow pre-tax profits and assets.

There are no surprises in the geographical composition of the Top 25 banks for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Russian banks still dominate the listing with 18 lenders and a total $34.9bn in Tier 1 capital.

In a year of continued banking consolidation, the top three positions in the Western Europe ranking are once again unchanged. London-based HSBC, France’s Crédit Agricole and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) sit firmly at the top of the most solid banks in the region.

The pace of growth among banks around the world has picked up since last year and The party continues but for how long and where will future growth come from?

The Banker launched its second annual Top 100 Chinese Banks listing in both English and Chinese on June 5 in Beijing. The event was attended by governor of The People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaochuan, who received his award as The Banker’s Central Banker of the Year 2007 in Asia, and by Pan Gongsheng, secretary of the board of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, who picked up the bank’s award for The Banker’s Deal of the Year 2007.

M&As have further cut the number of rankable entries in our listing, which remains dominated by Panama.

South Africa’s ‘big five’ lead The Banker’s Top 100 African banks listing while the impact of Nigeria’s new regulations on bank capitalisation has yet to filter through.