INTERNATIONAL BANKS' PERFORMANCE: A FIVE-COUNTRY COMPARISON

This paper analyzes the competition among the world's largest banks during the past decade. It demonstrates the reasons why US-based banks have outperformed their British, German, Swiss, and Japanese rivals in terms of profitability and other performance measures. Three of the largest banks from each country are included in the data set, and a regression model shows that significant contributions to individual bank performance derive from positive factors such as greater efficiency, higher non-interest earnings, and higher home-country GDP growth, plus negative factors such as greater loan loss provisions, higher Tier 1 capital ratio, and larger bank size. The strategic direction and other key factors about each bank are discussed along with the statistical analysis.