WORLD’S SAFEST BANKS – 2008

New York, 4 September 2008

Global Finance magazine has released its annual ranking of the Worlds Safest Banks, which will be featured in the special October issue alongside several of the magazines renowned Best Bank awards.

The Worlds Safest Banks were selected through a comparison of the long-term credit ratings and total assets of the 300 largest banks around the world. Ratings from Moodys, Standard & Poors and Fitch were used.

This is the 16th year that Global Finance has published its list of the worlds largest banks ranked by their creditworthiness. The 10 banks at the top of the list are designated as the

Worlds Safest Banks.

These banks will be honored at an awards ceremony to be held in Washington D.C. on October 13th to coincide with the World Bank/IMF annual meeting.

These banks have demonstrated an appropriately prudent approach to risk in providing international financial services, says Global Finance publisher, Joseph D. Giarraputo.

More than ever customers are viewing strong credit quality as an important feature of the banks with which they do business.