Now more than ever, the world's best banks deserve recognition for continuing to provide excellent products and high levels of service to their clients, despite the distractions of the global credit crunch and financial market turmoil that continues to swirl around them. The most successful financial institutions in the past year have been those that moved guickly to distance themselves from the fallout of the crisis, as well as those lucky enough to be located in fast-growing emerging markets remote from the epicenter.

The foundation of the global banking system remains unstable, and further aftershocks are possible, but the process of rebuilding and creating a new culture and business model is already under way. Some banks, such as Goldman Sachs, reacted quickly to the first signs of problems in the US mortgage market and changed their tack.

As British economist John Maynard Keynes said during the Depression, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

The facts changed very quickly in the past 12 months, as triple- A-rated investments lost much of their value and credit markets seized up, pushing the US economy to the brink of recession. In Britain, the credit crunch caught Northern Rock in its vise, causing the first run on a UK bank in 150 years.

Fearing a major US bank collapse that could have brought down the entire financial system, the Federal Reserve backed the rushed rescue of Bear Stearns through a takeover by rival JPMorgan Chase. This marked the first time the Fed has bailed out a brokerage firm since the Depression.

One can only guess what the outcome might have been if sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and Asia had been unwilling to invest billions upon billions of dollars for stakes in troubled Western financial institutions. Forced resignations of dozens of senior executives and layoffs of tens of thousands of bankers already are a reality.

Increased regulatory oversight is likely as banks go back to the basics of more carefully assessing risks while strengthening their capital positions and tightening standards for lending and investments. Some products, such as securitizations, may never come back to the levels they reached before the crisis broke in August 2007. But newer, safer and more transparent ways of doing business almost certainly will emerge.

Global Finance has identified the best banks in 118 countries, as well as the best banks globally in 10 key banking categories. We have been presenting these awards since 1997.

In selecting this year's winners, Global Finance's editorial team as usual considered factors that range from the objective to the informed subjective. Objective criteria included growth in assets, profitability, geographic reach, strategic relationships, new business development and product innovation. Subjective criteria included the opinions of equity and credit-rating analysts, banking consultants and others in the industry, as well as corporate financial executives.

The winners are not always the biggest banks but, rather, the best banks-those with the qualities that corporations should look for when choosing a bank. These are banks with effective riskmanagement systems, excellent service and good corporate governance.

Within this listing of the World's Best Banks we have included our April 2008 list of the Best Developed Market Banks and our May 2008 list of the Best Emerging Market Banks.

Contributors: Paula L. Green, Antonio Guerrero, Anita Hawser, Laurence Neville and Gordon Platt

WORLD'S BEST BANKS 2008

BEST GLOBAL BANKS

BEST CORPORATE BANK

JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase escaped the worst of the fallout from the credit crunch, and powered full steam ahead through the financial storm. The bank's strong balance sheet is the envy of its peers. It acquired Bear Stearns for a rock-bottom price and helped stabilize the US financial system. JPMorgan Chase has evolved into the pre- eminent global financial institution that corporations rely on to meet their financial needs. The bank offers a full range of quality products and services, including advice on financings and risk management. Its Commercial Banking and Treasury & securities Services divisions both posted record earnings and revenue in the second quarter of 2008. JPMorgan led in global investment banking fees in the first half of this year, and it ranked number one in global debt, equity and equity-related volumes. The bank's capital position will enable it to continue to invest for a future that looks bright at a time when lights are still dimming elsewhere in the financial world.

* James Dimon, chairman and CEO

www.jpmorganchase.com

BEST CONSUMER BANK

HSBC

UK-based HSBC was one of the first financial institutions to sound the alarm about the problems in the US subprime mortgage industry. While the bank's purchase in 2002 of Household International, the largest US consumer finance company at the time, has caused it much grief, HSBC has maintained a strong capital position and is benefiting from its widespread presence in emerging markets. In June 2008 HSBC officially entered the Polish retail banking market with the introduction of HSBC Premier, its cross- border personal banking service, which is available to affluent consumers in 39 countries. Customers with about $70,000 of savings or investments can open accounts in difierent countries and have synchronized online access to them and transfer funds between the accounts for free. They also can take their accounts with them whenever they move.

* Stephen Green, group chairman

www.hsbcnet.com

BEST PRIVATE BANK

Credit Suisse

Zurich-based Credit Suisse withstood the credit crisis better than its closest rivals and returned to profitability in the second quarter of this year, following a first-quarter loss on big write- downs of mortgage-backed securities and leveraged debt. Credit Suisse is expanding its private banking business, already one of the largest such operations in the world, and is hiring top talent from its wounded competitors. Its wealth management unit attracted 15.4 billion Swiss francs ($14 billion) of net funds in the second quarter of this year. Credit Suisse Private Banking USA opened an office in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, Illinois, in February, its 16th office in the United States. Last year it opened offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, and in Philadelphia.

Brady Dougan, CEO

www.credit-suisse.com

BEST ASSET MANAGEMENT BANK

State Street Global Advisors

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of Boston-based State Street, is the largest institutional asset manager in the world. At the end of June 2008 it had $1.9 trillion of assets under management. In January of this year State Street set aside $618 million to cover any possible lawsuits over subprime mortgages. At the same time, SSgA announced that William Hunt was stepping down as president and CEO. Scott Powers, former CEO of Old Mutual US, took the helm of SSgA in May. Meanwhile, State Street's outlook has improved considerably, with second-quarter earnings rising 50% from the same period a year earlier, in part due to the acquisition last year of Investors Financial Services, an assetcustody firm. State Street recently introduced a new platform that automates the processing of over-thecounter derivatives.

* Scott Powers, president and CEO

www.ssga.com

BEST CUSTODY BANK

The Bank of New York Mellon

The Bank of New York Mellon has more than $23 trillion in assets under custody and administration. The bank's asset-servicing fees totaled $868 million in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 25% from the same period a year earlier. The gain reflected higher spreads in securities lending and new business, as well as the acquisition in the fourth quarter of 2007 of the remaining 50% interest in a joint venture with ABN AMRO. BNY Mellon Asset Servicing has an extensive network of sub-custodians and offers a wide range of services through its custody platform. The bank operates in 34 countries and serves more than 100 markets. It offers customized reporting and systems that integrate related services such as cash management and foreign exchange. Gulf Reinsurance, based in the Dubai International Financial Center, recently selected BNY Mellon to provide global custody, cash-sweep fund and securities lending services.

* Robert Kelly, chairman and CEO

www.bnymellon.com

BEST INVESTMENT BANK

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs had record revenues and profits in 2007 despite the turmoil in global markets. It was one of the first banks to cut its holdings of mortgages and mortgage-related securities as it followed a strict policy of marking its investments to market. Goldman has maintained its lead in advising on worldwide M&A deals announced in the first half of 2008, extending its 10-year reign atop the league tables. Its equity underwriting in its second quarter, ended May 30, was the second-best ever and the highest in eight years. Assets under management increased 18% from a year earlier and reached a record $895 billion. Next year Goldman will move into a new 43- story, $2.4 billion headquarters it is building in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan. * Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO

www.gs.com

BEST CASH MANAGEMENT BANK

Citi

Citi is not just a bank, but also a financial solutions provider that works with technology vendors to help companies re-engineer their treasury and cash management processes. The Treasury and Trade Solutions division of Citi's Global Transaction Services offers integrated cash management and trade soludons to clients in 140 countries. Citi's products and services are constantly evolving along with the financial markets, regulations and technology. Citi's Managed Identity Services solution enhances and streamlines security and identity management in high-value corporate payment transfers. In May of this year Citi teamed with Oracle in Japan to provide a robust cash-management structure for the global operations of Japanese corporations. The solution helps the banking giant's clients conform to new J-Sox compliance requirements under the Japanese version of Sarbanes-Oxley.

* Paul Galant, CEO, Global Transaction Services

www.citigroupcib.com

BEST TRADE FINANCE BANT

BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas, the leading French bank, maintains a network of 93 trade centers worldwide staffed by a total of 250 dedicated trade finance specialists. The latest trade center is in Tripoli, Libya, where BNP Paribas and Sahara Bank formed a strategic partnership last year. The French bank offers online letters of credit and insight into numerous local markets. In its home market, it handles export financing for 40% of French corporations. BNP Paribas is holding up well in the face of the global financial crisis, which it helped bring to the world's attention in early August of last year, when it halted withdrawals from three investment funds because it could not fairly value their holdings after US subprime mortgage losses hit the credit markets.

* Baudouin Prot, CEO

www.bnpparibas.com

BEST FOREX BANK

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank is the world's leading bank in terms of spot foreign exchange trading volume. It also is a major market maker in forex swaps. The German bank offers innovative forex risk- management techniques, such as deal-contingent forwards and hedging products tied to derivatives. Deutsche Bank's FXSelect platform provides actively managed currency alpha products. The bank also offers FX trading platforms for retail customers and small institutions. Deutsche Bank's second-quarter 2008 earnings fell 64% from the same period a year earlier as it wrote down $3.6 billion as a result of the global credit market turmoil.

* Josef Ackermann, chairman

www.db.com

BEST SUB-CUSTODY BANK

HSBC

HSBC provides efficient and reliable securities services to global custodians, fund managers, broker/dealers and other financial institutions around the world. The bank is responsible for safekeeping of client assets of more than $2 trillion. In June of this year HSBC opened a sub-custody and securitiesclearing operation in Mexico, bringing to 39 the number of markets where it offers such services. HSBC's custody assets increased by 85% in Hong Kong last year, by 325% in Jordan and by 1,000% in Qatar, the fastest-growing economy in the Middle East.

* Stephen Green, group chairman

www.hsbcnet.com

NORTH AMERICA

BERMUDA

Butterfield Bank

Butterfield Bank continues to perform strongly. The bank believes its strategy of diversification across business lines and the region should allow it to avoid much of the uncertainty in the financial markets and says that it expects full-year results to be in line with previous expectations.

Year-on-year asset growth and revenue growth were 14.4% and 14.1%, and return on equity for the third quarter was 27.1%-an impressive rate by any standards and well above Butterfield Bank's target of 20%. The increase in non-interest income to $55.4 million, up 15.1% on the same period a year earlier, reflects strong growth in revenues from its trust and custody business and, as traditionally stable sources of income, should stand the bank in good stead in these challenging times.

* Alan Thompson, president and CEO

www.butterfieldbank.com

CANADA_

Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada's full-year results to the end of October 2007 demonstrated its leadership in its core Canadian businesses and growth in its non-domestic operations. The bank enjoyed an increase in net income of 16% compared to the previous year. Diluted earnings per share rose 17%, while revenue was up 9%, and return on equity was an impressive 24.6%-an increase of 110 basis points. To be sure, the period covered by the results only included the beginning of the credit crunch. Moreover, the bank recorded a significant valuation charge resulting from the severe dislocation of the credit markets and had put in place higher provisions for credit losses in US and international banking due to the US housing market downturn.

However, the bank expects that its targeted investments will extend its Canadian leadership and enable continued growth of its businesses outide its domestic market. In addition, Royal Bank of Canada displayed a strong performance across multiple products, markets and geographies. In Canadian banking it grew lending volumes by 11% and deposit balances by 6%. In wealth management its sales momentum continued to support strong growth in client assets, while Canadian wealth management grew assets under administration by 9%, and global asset management grew assets under management by 13%. US and international wealth management increased revenue by 15%, while RBC Dexia Investor Services increased assets under administration by 12%.

* Gordon Nixon, president and CEO

www.royalbank.com

UNITED STATES

JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase has weathered the subprime storm far better than many of its Main Street peers. In January it reported that 2007 fourth-quarter income from continuing operations was 21% lower than the fourth quarter of 2006, although it was offset by three strong quarters, resulting in a full-year record of $15.4 billion-up 15% compared with 2006. Unsurprisingly, investment bank performance in the fourth quarter was especially poor, with write-downs of $1.3 billion (net of hedges) on subprime positions, including subprime collateralized debt obligations, consumer home equity and weaker trading performance.

Given the scale of JPMorgan Chase's structured credit businessit can justifiably claim to have invented much of the market-there are concerns that further writedowns could follow. Nevertheless, JPMorgan Chase can take comfort from the diversified nature of its operations, which helped offset areas of weakness. Asset management, treasury and securities services, commercial banking and private equity reported record or near-record revenue and earnings while the bank also experienced growth in retail financial services, with increases in deposits, checking accounts and mortgage originations. Perhaps most important, the bank has managed to maintain its 8.4% Tier-1 capital ratio. The fact that the bank was chosen to buy out Bear Stearns has only added to its prestige.

* James Dimon, chairman and CEO

www.jpmorganchase.com

EUROPE

ALBANIA

Raiffeisen Bank Albania

Raiffeisen Bank Albania is the largest bank in the country and occupies the number-one position for all major performance indicators. Its asset base is close to euro2 billion, and it has a network of 96 branches throughout the country-almost three times more than its nearest competitor. With 160 ATMs, 400 point-of-sale (POS) terminals and a team of mobile bankers, Raiffeisen has a distribution network almost three times larger than its nearest competitor. Over the past three years Raiffeisen has been completely transformed into a full-service bank. Its loan portfolio has grown from zero in 2004 to euro483 million by the end of 2007. Total assets grew 9% in 2007, net profits rose an astounding 37% on the previous year, and return on equity (ROE)-while down on 2006-was an extremely impressive 46.69%.

* Oliver Whittle, CEO

www.raiffeisen.al

AUSTRIA

Bank Austria

Bank Austria, a member of UniCredit Group, achieved a significant improvement in its results in the first nine months of 2007 compared with the same period of the preceding year, despite the turbulence in financial markets. Consolidated profit (after tax and minority interests) rose by 72.5% over the same period a year earlier. BAs consolidated profit for the third quarter of 2007 increased by 65.1% over the third quarter of 2006. Meanwhile, the bank's cost/income ratio improved from 57.3% to 50.3%.With improvements in operating performance coming from its central and eastern Europe operations as well as Austria, the bank looks well positioned.

* Erich Hampel, CEO

www.bankaustria.at

BELARUS

Belagroprombank

Belagroprombank, a state-owned company, is the second-largest bank in Belarus (after Belarusbank) by assets but is growing rapidly. Its asset base grew an impressive 142% in 2007 while its deposit base grew 140% and its regulatory capital increased 122%. While return on equity is still a miserable 4.4%, Belagroprombank appears to have embraced the opportunities available. The bank is beefing up its retail offering with new products, including credit and debit cards, and is increasing its branch network. It has also opened its first branch in Italy following the growth of trade between that country and Belarus.

* Rumas Sergej Nikolayevich, chairman of the board of management

www.belapb.by

BELGIUM

Fortis

Of the three banks in the consortium that bought ABN AMRORBS, Santander and Fortis-it is the Belgo-Dutch bank Fortis that perhaps will experience the most change as a result of its new assets. Fortis has already enjoyed an increase in underlying net profit of its acquired businesses of 17% for the full-year 2007. The bank's strong commercial performance delivered resilient net interest income and growth in net commissions and fees despite volatile market conditions and uncertainty during the acquisition process. The ABN AMRO elements acquired by Fortis delivered a robust financial performance in 2007, with minimal client attrition. * Herman Verwilst, CEO

www.fortis.com

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA

Raiffeisen Bank Bosna i Hercegovina

Raiffeisen Bank remains the largest individual bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is the best. The bank grew its total number of customers to nearly 709,000 in 2006an increase of 16.8%. Moreover, at the end of 2007, its assets amounted to euro1.96 billion-23% higher than a year earlier-and ROE reached 17.7%. RaifFeisen ranks second after the combined forces of UniCredit HVB's three banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina for loan volume but is growing more rapidly.

* Michael Muller, director

www.raifFeisenbank.ba

BULGARIA

UniCredit Bulbank

During 2006-the last year for which figures are available- BuIbank, which is part of UniCredit, prepared the groundwork for its merger with HVB's Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank as part of the global merger of UniCredit Group and HVB Group in Bulgaria. UniCredit Bulbank was ambitious in its goals for the merger, implementing a new technology platform for all three banks as part of the change. Bulbank exhibited healthy growth in income and volumes, confirming its strong focus on value creation and its prudent risk policy, and it increased net profit by 25.1% on 2005. Profitability improved markedly, while nonperforming loans fell to just 1.5%.

* Levon Hampartzoumian, chairman and CEO

www.bulbank.bg

CROATIA

Privredna Banka Zagreb

Privredna Banka Zagreb (PBZ) has been one of the leading banks in the Croatian banking sector ever since its establishment and is now part of Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo. PBZ now has more than 1.3 million retail and corporate clients and a network that includes more than 220 branches. In December 2006 PBZ acquired a controlling stake in LT Gospodarska Banka (LTG) in Bosnia and Herzegovina.