The rankings are primarily based on the definition of tier-I capital as defined by Basle's Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and takes into account performance of these banks till March 30, 1998. Going by the BIS norms, tier-I includes common stocks, disclosed resreves and retained earnings but excludes cumulative preference shares, revaluation reserves, hidden reserves and subordinated and other long term debt which are part of tier-II capital.

The country's largest commercial bank State Bank of India is placed at 163 position (up from from 175 last year). The list of other Indian banks which find places on the survey are Bank of Baroda 460 (482), Bank of India 494 (533), Canara Bank 507 (525), United Bank of India 550 (508), Punjab National Bank 662 (745), Oriental Bank of Commerce 712 (756), Union Bank of India 785 (791), AndhraBank 924 (926) and Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank 965 (961). For the first time, the Mangalore-based Corporation Bank made appeared in the list (ranking: 826).

In the list of top 25 Asian banks, only the State Bank has found a place (20).

While the US-based Citigroup is the selected as number one bank in the world, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China heads the list in Asia. The US banks have increased their presence in the list at the expense of Europe and Asia.

The average tier-I capital to assets ratio of the 1,000 banks increased sharply last year to 4.72 per cent from 4.48 per cent while average profit ratios dipped for the second year running.

The cost/income ratio has becomee the standard benchmark of banking efficiency mesuring banks operating costs as a proportion of total income, said the survey.

The basic objective of the survey is to show the banks' soundness in relation to the Basle requirement of a minimum tier-I capital on risk-weighted assets of 4 per cent and minimum ratio ofcapital to risk-weightage assets of 8 per cent.

The published assets figures differ from the risk-weighted assets figures used to calculate BIS ratio. Weights applied range from zero (to assets such as cash, claims on central banks and governments in local currency) to 20 per cent (to assets such as lending to multilateral development banks), 50 per cent (to residential mortagages) and 100 per cent (private sector lending).

However, the Basle rules adopted by individual countries Governments vary to some extent. The pre-tax profits are used to show bank's performance and the figures for real profit growth take inflation into account. The profit on capital ratios are calculated using the averagee of the latest and previous years' capital figures.