A mixed year for the sector but at the top of the pile, HSBC and Santander, the largest two European-headquartered banks have both enjoyed share price rises for the year to date of almost 25%.

Before they get too carried away, their respective market capitalisations of $162bn and $76bn today compare with over $200bn and +$100bn in 2007 just ahead of the crisis (see 2007 table).

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Of Europe’s largest banks, UniCredit has taken the biggest hit for the year to date, its share price down 44% giving a market cap of only $18bn. A little over eight years ago, UniCredit regularly featured in any ranking of the world’s largest 20 banks by market cap with a value of circa $80bn. Today it is does not feature in Europe’s top 20.

Nor does Deutsche Bank – now the 21st largest bank in Europe by market cap.

RBS, down by 24% for the year to date now has a market cap of only $33bn; pre-crisis, it was the 5th largest bank in the world by that measure worth over $100bn in 2005 behind only Citi, Bank of America, HSBC and Chase.

The three largest quoted French banks all posted double digit increases this year as did the leading banks in Scandinavia.

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By contrast, UBS and Credit Suisse have had difficult years.

Although Standard Chartered CEO Bill Withers described third quarter results as unacceptable, its share price is up by almost a quarter this year.

Barclays will be one to watch next year; its share price is flat for the year but this year it has undertaken much of the heavy lifting and exited or near-exited markets considered non-core.