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(Bloomberg) -- Europe's latest push to revive long-stalled negotiations over a single market for banks risks being undermined by efforts to change the rules for winding down failed lenders. In Europe, at least 8% of a failed lender's liabilities need to be "bailed in" -- meaning investors will have to take losses -- before the region's bank failure fund can be used to absorb losses. [Extracted from the article]

This article presents the top 500 banks in the world ranked by shareholders' equity in 1987. List details include 1986 rank, fiscal date, equity growth, net income, income growth, total assets, asset growth, and dollar exchange rate differential. American, European, and Japanese banks are well represented on the list. The top 10 are: National Westminster Bank Group, Citicorp, Caisse Nationale du Credit Agricole, Barclays, Union Bank of Switzerland, Deutsche Bank, Swiss Bank Corp., Banque Nationale de Paris, Sumitomo Bank, and Credit Suisse. In 11th to 20th places are Banco do Brasil, Fuji Bank, J.P. Morgan, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Mitsubishi Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Midland Bank Group, Rabobank, Lloyds Bank, and Sanwa Bank.

The article discusses various issues related to the European equity market. The year 1996 saw the international markets raised a record $113 billion in new equity and equity-linked instruments. Judging by rising secondary markets and heavy volumes in January 1997, investment bankers are headed for another busy year. There are a lot of fairly price insensitive vendors out there, namely governments, which will continue to sell stocks, says Alex Graham, director of equity capital markets at Salomon Brothers Inc. in London, England. The embrace of shareholder value in Europe is a tend which may outlast any market downturn and continue to provide new business for equity firms throughout the year. It was evident in the spate of Great Britain share buy-backs in 1996 and may lead to moresubsidiary spin-offs in 1997. Bankers certainly hope so. The public equity market will face strong competition, particularly in spin-offs of companies' subsidiaries, from trade buyers. Vendors are likely to appoint advisers capable of the so-called dual-track approach. They will give their business to banks with strong equity capital markets. That should enhance the dominant position of the leading international investment banks.

This article discusses the "Euromoney" magazine's Five Hundred list of top banks in the Eurobond international capital market. American and Canadian banks took a beating in 1987. European and Japanese banks went from strength to strength but they cannot afford to smile because there is the Bank for International Settlements' (BIS) capital adequacy requirements to worry about. The list ranks banks by shareholders' equity, defined as the sum of preferred stock, common stock, surplus, undivided profits, capital reserves, and current year profit. The BIS will require banks to raise their ratios of core capital to risk-adjusted assets to 3.625 percent by 1990, four percent by 1992, and eight percent by 1992. Against this background, American banks are looking healthier than the Japanese, Norwegian, Swedish, and French banks.

The article focuses on issues concerning "European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BERD)." The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the future international institution designed to help finance the rebuilding of excommunist Europe, with a capital stock of 10 billion ecus and an emphasis on promoting the private sector. Last week the bank's 42 founding members met for the first time in London, where its headquarters will be, to discuss how it will work. Some of them emerged privately alarmed at the imperial behaviour of the bank's French president-designate Jacques Attali.

This article presents the top 50 banks in the international capital market ranked by shareholders' equity growth in local currency. Stupendous rates of inflation in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico give this table a Latin American flavor. It says something unpleasant about the cruzado that Banco do Estado de Sao Paulo can be ranked top by growth in local currency and 210th by growth in dollar terms. There is a dearth of well-known American names and a retreat by the Japanese trust banks. Other high rankers include a number of Austrians, which had to meet stringent domestic capital adequacy laws in 1987 and a number of Spanish savings banks.