The global economic recovery and the return to profitability of the Japanese banking sector after massive losses has helped to produce record profits in the Top 1000 banks worldwide. After a damaging drop in profits of 29.7% in fiscal 2001 and a modest recovery the following year, fiscal 2003 proved to be a bumper year for banks around the globe.
Aggregate pre-tax profits of The Banker’s Top 1000 banks jumped from $252.4bn in last year’s listing to $417.4bn in this year’s listing, a mammoth 65.4% increase and $100bn more than the previous record profits year in fiscal 2000.
