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Eastern presence keeps growing

The Banker's Top 1000 new entrants list is dominated by Asia-Pacific-based institutions, with the largest new entrant coming from South Korea and 13 Chinese institutions entering the rankings.
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New arrivals

Each year, The Banker remains committed to increasing the scope of its research to ensure that the Top 1000 ranking finds new banks that were not tracked in previous years. In 2012, while the West has been busy consolidating banks, there have been new entrants from across the globe which have made it into the ranking due to pure organic growth. In this vein, it is worth mentioning that the $284m Tier 1 capital of the 1000th ranked bank in the Top 1000 is 11% larger than the $255m held by the bank that held this position last year, a reflection of the growth in emerging markets.

South Korea’s KDB Financial Group is the biggest new arrival, ranking 71st with Tier 1 capital of $17bn. The former development bank is in talks to sell a stake of up to 30% in an initial public offering planned for October 2012.

Fuelled by Asia’s continued growth, there are 13 new Chinese entrants in the Top 1000 ranking this year. The largest of these can be found in the middle of the ranking in 503rd position, while the smallest is in 995th place.

The majority of the European banks in the 2012 new arrivals table are in the process of being restructured. The headline on last year's new arrivals write-up was ‘Merged cajas on the move’, which remains just as pertinent today. The highest entrant last year was Spain’s Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA), the holding company of Bankia, which was formed as the result of the merger of seven savings banks, or ‘cajas’.

As The Banker went to press in June, BFA was in the process of seeking $23.5bn in what could potentially become the largest bank bailout in Spanish history. Meanwhile, two of the new Spanish arrivals this year – Banco Mare Nostrum and Liberbank – are currently being eyed up as part of a possible four-way merger. Some analysts have speculated that Spain could end the year with six savings banks, down from 40 a few years ago.

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