The Global Finance magazine has published the winners for the Best Developed Market Banks awards for this year. The winning banks were selected in 25 countries with the exclusion of Ireland and Iceland. From the news report:
The winners of this year’s awards are those banks that attended carefully to their customers’ needs in difficult markets and accomplished better results while laying the foundations for future success.
All selections were made by the editors of Global Finance, after extensive consultations with bankers, corporate financial executives and analysts throughout the world. In selecting these top banks, we considered factors that range from the quantitative objective to the informed subjective. Banks were invited to submit entries supporting their selection. Amid nominally objective criteria were growth in assets, profitability, geographic reach, strategic relationships, new business development and innovation in products. Subjective criteria included the opinions of equity analysts, credit rating analysts, banking consultants and others involved in the industry. The mix of these factors yields leading banks that may not be the largest, the oldest or the most diversified in a given country, but rather the best — the banks with which corporations around the world would most likely want to do business.
[TABLE=891]
JPMorgan Chase(JPM) is the best bank in the U.S. The bank survived the financial crisis well and has announced plans to raise its dividend. Due to the current uncertainty with European banks it is a better to avoid them altogether for most investors until the dust settles. However investors willing to take a long-term view may nibble at some of the bank stocks at current levels. For Finland’s Nordea Bank (NRBAY) and Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank(RAIFY) have the potential for strong growth since they are well capitalized and have written off most of the losses from their books. Australia’s Commonwealth bank(CMWAY) and Singapore’s United Overseas Bank(UOVEY) should benefit from emerging Asia’s growth.
