Boosting profits at a mid-size bank in an often turbulent market is not easy. But, with Indonesia on an upswing during a smooth political handover in 2004, Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) discovered many opportunities to raise its game. The result was a 101% increase in Tier 1 capital to $383m and net profit almost doubled.

Five years ago, Abu Dhabi-based First Gulf Bank (FGB) was a parochial non-entity with Dh2.4bn ($653m) of assets and a Dh50m profit. Today, the bank’s management is celebrating the results of a turnaround programme that has propelled the institution far up the global rankings.

What do you call a bank that has doubled in size every year for the past eight years and that jumps 248 places in The Banker’s latest Top 1000 world banks listing to reach 211th place? Some call it a miracle.
Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, the youthful chief executive of Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, takes a more modest approach and calls it sustained rapid growth.
But how has Kaupthing catapulted itself onto the world stage, quintupled its balance sheet in the past three years and more than doubled its net earnings in 2004?

Ukraine and Russia will be in the EU within the next 15 years, argue Peter Schwartz and Chris Coldewey, with Ukraine in pole position.

Holland’s Rabobank has acquired a 36.5% stake in Sekerbank for $90m, as European banks continue to snap up shares in Turkish banks ahead of the country’s membership talks with the EU in October.

Gulf banks have continued to increase profits, reporting record profit growth in excess of 50% for the first half of 2005.

The argentine authorities are introducing capital controls on speculative inflows even though Chile abolished its controls in 2001 amid controversy over their effect.

The war of words between savings banks and commercial banks is heating up as the European Commission prepares its study of obstacles to banking consolidation in the EU.
“The cajas [Spanish savings banks] acquire the leftovers of bankrupt banks,” said Juan Ramón Quintás, chairman of the Confederación Española de Cajas de Ahorros (CECA) – the association of Spanish savings banks.

China’s decision on July 21 to replace its currency peg to the US dollar with a managed floating exchange rate regime has been welcomed by those clamouring for currency reform. But the relatively small 2.1% revaluation of the renminbi leaves many questions unanswered.

Storm clouds are gathering above the UK banking sector. Azhar Rizvi recommends taking shelter in continental Europe.