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Shift in UK and Spanish banking landscapes

Despite some concerns over the impact of regulation on profit, the big banks in western Europe have mostly held their ground. However, the aftermath of the financial crisis has seen changes in the UK and Spanish banking sectors.
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Ongoing problems at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have seen the lender slip from first to second place in the western Europe tables. The bank closed 2010 with a $1.47bn loss and a Tier 1 capital of $94bn, 24% smaller than the previous year. RBS, which had to be rescued by the UK government during the financial crisis and which is still in tax-payers’ hands, is the only bank in the top 25 western European banks to have closed the year in the red.

The region’s strongest bank is HSBC with $133.18bn in Tier 1 capital, a figure that the bank has increased by 9% since last year. HSBC’s pre-tax profits were $19bn, the largest in the region (almost three times the average value of pre-tax profits of the top 25 banks in western Europe) and a 169% growth from the 2009 results.

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Silvia Pavoni is editor in chief of The Banker. Silvia also serves as an advisory board member for the Women of the Future Programme and for the European Risk Management Council, and is part of the London council of non-profit WILL, Women in Leadership in Latin America. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary fellowship by City University of London.
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