A patchy economic performance in western Europe in 2015 saw its lenders slide further down the global rankings. HSBC is clinging on to its global top 10 position, however, while there is some good news for Greek and Italian lenders.
Russian banks have suffered through the stormy financial conditions of the past two years, but its lenders remain the largest in the central and eastern Europe region. However, Romania, and Banca Transilvania in particular, provide the region's good news story.
Its share of global return on capital may have fallen, but Asia-Pacific still leads in profits. On the rise are western Europe, North America and the Middle East, while Latin America and the caribbean, central and eastern Europe and Africa all recorded smaller shares.
Hypo Alpe Adria – now known as Heta – is a 'bad bank' from the Austrian region of Carinthia that is the first to be wound down according to the EU's Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive. Stefanie Linhardt assesses the situation and looks at who the winners and losers will be.
The south-eastern European states formerly associated with the Soviet Union have been slow to privatise state-owned assets when compared with their western European neighbours, but political reforms and softening attitudes mean fresh momentum is spurring a wave of long-delayed sell-offs in the region, particularly in Serbia and Slovenia.
Having shed two of its assets – the exchanges of Budapest and Ljubljana – the CEE Stock Exchange Group, with owner Vienna Stock Exchange at the helm, is steering a new strategic course. Its aim, as Stefanie Linhardt reports, is to become a leading service provider for central and eastern Europe's exchanges.
Slovenia's economy was in a precarious position, even by current European standards, as recently as 2013. The country's central bank governor, Boštjan Jazbec, explains how a return to health has been achieved through methods that were not universally popular.
After a turbulent few years, Europe faces political pressure over the Syrian refugee crisis, the prospect of a Brexit and further financial instability within the eurozone, with Greece never far from the news. Stefanie Linhardt speaks to seven economists about the region's prospects for the coming 12 months.
While consolidation is likely to change the face of Slovenia’s banking system in the coming years, in the near term issues with low profitability are top of the agenda. And, despite the creation of a bad bank to expunge the problem of non-performing loans, many banks still have a far from healthy loan book.
A dearth of greenfield infrastructure opportunities combined with unsupportive governments have burst the public-private partnership bubble in western Europe, with deal flow decreasing dramatically from its peak in 2007. Stefanie Linhardt reports on whether this trend will prove to be terminal.
Russian lender Tinkoff has fared better than most of its peers during the uncertainty that has engulfed the country's economy in the past 12 months, thanks in no small part to a wide portfolio of products, which take in debit and credit cards, insurance, mortgages and SME servicing.