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Slowdown hits CEE banks hard

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Two themes dominate the changes in this year's rankings compared with 2008. First, the heavy sell-off in the currencies of many central and eastern European countries, including Russia, Hungary and Ukraine, has reduced Tier 1 capital in dollar terms. Second, liquidity crises and the revelation of high non-performing loan (NPL) ratios on portfolios that had not previously been tested in an economic downturn has brought a number of banks close to collapse, knocking them out of the Top 1000 altogether.

The top five CEE banks remain the same, bar a small reshuffle, as Gazprom fell from third to fifth. Sberbank shrank a little, but this is more to do with rouble depreciation than decline: because the rouble fell by more than 25% in 2008, its 4% Tier 1 decline means there is still actual capital growth in rouble terms. With no subprime exposure, OTP in Hungary grew, due also to record profits and a restricted dividend that has helped the bank to build its capital base to $4.15bn, from $3.47bn last year.

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