Best banks in the developed markets

New York-based Global Finance magazine recently announced its annual awards for the World's best banks in developed markets. 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.

Objective criteria considered included: 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.

Here are the best developed market banks:

...

North America

JPMorgan Chase
Unites States
Chairman and CEO: Jamie Dimon

JPMorgan Chase is one of the oldest financial institutions in the US. It is a leading global financial services firm with assets of $2.3 trillion. Their employee strength is over 2,40,000 employees, and it operates in more than 60 countries.

...

HSBC Bank
Bermuda
CEO: Philip Butterfield

HSBC in Bermuda has all of the local knowledge of an institution resident in Bermuda since 1889 together with the global reach and financial strength of HSBC.

...

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
Canada
President and CEO: Gordon M Nixon

Operating since 1864, RBC has grown to become one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies providing banking, wealth management, insurance and capital markets services on a global basis.

...

Europe

RZB/Raiffeisen Bank International
Austria
CEO: Dr Walter Rothensteiner

Founded in 1927, RZB is the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group (RBG). The RZB Group is the third largest Austrian bank. As of end-2010, the balance-sheet total of the RZB Group amounted to 136.5 billion euros.

...

KBC Bank
Belgium
Chairman: Jan Huyghebaert

KBC Bank is a Belgian universal multi-channel bank, focusing on private clients and small and medium-sized enterprises. It is the 18th largest bank in Europe (by market capitalisation) and a major financial player in Central and Eastern Europe, employing some 51,000 staff worldwide.

...

Bank of Cyprus
Cyprus
Chairman: Theodoros Aristodemou

Founded in 1899, the Bank of Cyprus Group is the leading Cypriot banking and financial services group. The Group currently operates through a total of 583 branches, and employs 11,326 staff worldwide.

...

Credit Mutuel
France
CEO: Alain Fradin

Credit Mutuel is a major French bank, with headquarters in Strasbourg, Alsace. Its slogan is "La banque a qui parler" (The bank to speak to). It has over 7.4 million customers.

...

Deutsche Bank
Germany
Co-Chairman: Anshu Jain/ J rgen Fitschen

Deutsche Bank AG is a global banking and financial services company with its headquarters in the Deutsche Bank Twin Towers in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the emerging markets.

...

Alpha Bank
Greece
CEO: Demetrios Mantzounis

Alpha Bank is the second largest bank in Greece after National Bank of Greece, with 450 branches throughout the country. Founded in 1879, it has been controlled by the Costopoulos family since the very beginning.

...

Bank of Ireland
Ireland
Group Chief Executive: Richie Boucher

Bank of Ireland is a commercial bank operation in Ireland, which is one of the traditional 'Big Four' Irish banks.

Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the Bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history. At the core of the modern-day group is the old Bank of Ireland, the ancient institution established by Royal Charter in 1783.

...

Intesa Sanpaolo
Italy
CEO: Enrico Tommaso Cucchiani

Intesa Sanpaolo is a banking group resulting from the merger between Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI based in Turin, Italy. It has clear leadership in the Italian market and a minor but growing international presence focused on Central-Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

...

Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat
Luxembourg
Chairman: Victor Rod

Founded in 1856 as a savings bank, its competences were expanded over time, culminating in its transformation by Grand Ducal decree into a full service bank on 25 October 1944.

...

Rabobank
Netherlands
Chairman of the Executive Board: Piet Moerland

Rabobank Group is a full-range financial services provider that operates on cooperative principles. Its origins lie in the local loan cooperatives that were founded in the Netherlands nearly 110 years ago by enterprising people who had virtually no access to the capital market.

...

Banco Santander Totta
Portugal
President: Nuno Amado

Banco Santander Totta S.A. is a Portuguese bank. It is the fourth largest bank in Portugal and the third largest private bank.

...

Santander
Spain
CEO: Alfredo Saenz Abad

The Santander Group is a Spanish banking group centered on Banco Santander, SA, the largest bank in the Eurozone and one of the leading banks in the world in terms of market capitalisation.

According to Forbes Magazine Global 2010, it was the 6th largest company in the world. It originated in Santander, Cantabria, Spain.

...

Credit Suisse
Switzerland
CEO: Brady Dougan

The Credit Suisse Group AG is a Swiss multinational financial services company headquartered in Zurich, with more than 250 branches in Switzerland and operations in more than 50 countries.

...

HSBC
UK
Chairman: Douglas Flint

Headquartered in London, HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world. HSBC's international network comprises around 7,200 offices in over 80 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.

...

Nordic Region

Danske Bank
Denmark
Chairman: Ole Andersen

The Danske Bank Group, headquartered in Copenhagen, is the largest bank in Denmark and one of the leading financial enterprises in northern Europe. It offers a full range of banking services, with an emphasis on retail banking.

The bank has over 5 million customers and 21,160 full-time employees.

...

Nordea
Finland
Chairman: Bjorn Wahlroos

Nordea Bank AB is a Stockholm-based financial services group operating in Northern Europe. The bank is the result of the successive mergers and acquisitions of the Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian banks of Nordbanken, Merita Bank, Unibank and Kreditkassen (Christiania Bank) that took place between 1997 and 2000.

...

DNB
Norway
CEO: Rune Bjerke

DNB is Norway's largest financial services group. The Group includes brands such as DNB, Vital, Nordlandsbanken, Cresco, Postbanken, DnB NORD and Carlson. DNB's head office is located in Oslo.

...

SEB
Sweden
Chairman: Marcus Wallenberg

Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, SEB has 4 million private customers, 400,000 SME customers and 2,600 corporates and institutions as customers. The group has about 17,000 employees and has operations in 20 countries in the Nordic and Baltic regions, Europe and Asia.

...

Asia/Pacific and Middle East

ANZ
Australia
CEO: Michael Smith

ANZ traces its origins to the Bank of Australasia, which opened its first office in Sydney in 1835. The bank established a Melbourne office in 1838, where ANZ's world headquarters is located today at 833 Collins Street, Melbourne.

...

Bank of China (Hong Kong)
Hong Kong
CEO: He Guangbei

Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited is the second-largest commercial banking group in Hong Kong in terms of assets and customer deposits, with more than 300 branches in Hong Kong. It was established in October 2001 following a merger of 12 subsidiaries and associates of the Bank of China in Hong Kong.

...

Bank Hapoalim
Israel
Chairman: Danny Dankner

Bank Hapoalim is Israel's largest bank. The bank has a significant presence in global financial markets. In Israel, the group has over 260 full-service branches, eight regional business centres, and industry desks for major corporate customers.

The bank was established in 1921 by the Histadrut the Israeli trade union congress and the World Zionist Organisation.

...

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Japan
Chairman: Ryosuke Tamakoshi

Mitsubishi is a Japanese financial services company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It holds assets of around US$2.5 trillion as of March 2011 and is one of the main companies of the Mitsubishi Group.

...

Kiwibank
New Zealand
CEO: Paul Brock

Kiwibank is a 100 per cent New Zealand owned bank and they are located in PostShops nationwide. Established in 2002, it has more than 7,00,000 customers and 900 employees.

...

DBS Bank
Singapore
CEO: Piyush Gupta

DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia, with over 200 branches across 15 markets. Headquartered in Singapore, DBS has over 4 million customers. It has also won the Global Finance's "Safest Bank in Asia" award for two consecutive years, in 2009 and 2010.