Banking in Emerging Markets: The Bigger and Bigger Picture

In covering the rise of Emerging Markets banks, The Economist notes that few of these financial firms are known on a global basis – yet their rate of growth indicates the potential for expansion. “Despite their large size, most emerging-market banks are not household names in the West. Most rich-world investors are aware of China’s “big three” banks, at or near the top of the global rankings (see table 2), but know little about them. Aside from the Chinese banks, the global top 25 include a handful of big Russian and Brazilian firms, and lower down there is a long list of smaller banks that together add up to quite a lot. The average listed rich-country bank in the top 150 has a market value of about $36 billion, against $24 billion for emerging- market firms and just $15 billion if China is excluded. Many are state-controlled and most were handsomely profitable through the crisis and have good capital and funding profiles. Few have much business overseas.” This is part of my survey of the 30 best articles from The Economist over the past two years to gain insight into whether Brazilian attitudes towards America have declined, and global attitudes towards Brazil — comments welcome!