I'm here with Philip Alexander, the senior editor, and we're previewing the special edition of the Banker

今天將和資深編輯菲利普一同搶先看《銀行家》的特別專刊，

for the IMF annual meetings, which are in Lima, Peru, in October.

焦點放在十月份將於祕魯利馬市展開的國際貨幣組織年會。

And Philip, I mean, we've got all the usual things in the IMF edition,

菲利普，你看，我們手邊已經有了普遍和貨幣組織相關的全部資料，

we've got an interview with Christy McGrath, the managing director of the IMF and a whole range of viewpoints from finance, business.

還有貨幣組織的執行董事主席克莉絲媞‧麥可格拉思的專訪，以及各種財經、企業的觀點。

But one of the interesting things we've also got is a Bank Safety Ranking,

但其中最有趣的是「銀行安全指數」，

and it's the first time we've ever done one. Why did the Banker decide to do a Bank Safety Ranking?

這是我們第一次做這件事。為什麼《銀行家》決定要做銀行安全指數呢？

Well Brian, because every July we produce the Top 1000 World Banks Ranking,

哦，布萊恩，我們每年七月都會列出世界前1000大銀行排名，

but that's just ranked by size, essentially the size of the tier one capital.

但那是依規模大小來排名，以資本額多寡做為基礎。

As we know, that doesn't necessarily mean that the bank is safe, in fact, during the financial crisis,

很顯然，這也不足以代表銀行的安全程度。事實上，在金融海嘯時，

some of the largest banks in the world were the ones that gone into trouble.

世界最大的幾間銀行反而受到嚴重衝擊。

So what we've done is we've taken the 250 largest banks in the world, so the ones that are most significant in terms of financial stability,

所以，我們做的是把在金融穩定性有足大影響力和最多公開資訊的世界前250間的銀行，

and also have the most data available on them. And we've ranked them according to a series of indicators that we think reflect the safety of the bank.

依據一連串足以顯示銀行安全性的指標來排名。

Okay, I mean it's pretty complex business isn't it?

瞭解，這可真是件複雜的差事不是嗎？

I mean, ranking bank safety. So what sorts of indicators have we used?

我是說，這樣一層層排列銀行的安全性。要利用哪些種類的指標呢？

So we looked at the capital ratio, how well capitalized they are, but we've also looked at profitability, sustain, whether that sustained.

看的是銀行如何有效使用資本率，也有看收益能力，還有是否有續航力。

We've looked at asset quality, how many bad loans they have, we've looked at how they fund themselves.

資產質量也是指標之一，銀行有多少不良貸款、如何獲得資金，

Are they, more or less, dependent on wholesale funding, which as we know from the crisis, can dry up.

以及在批發融資上的依賴程度，在金融海嘯後，我們也都深知這種資金是會枯竭的。

All of that information comes from the Banker database, we've also pulled in one set of numbers from beyond the Banker database,

所有資訊都來自《銀行家》的資料庫，同時引進一組資料庫裡沒有的數字，

which is, we wanted to look at the operating environment for the banks.

那就是銀行的經營環境，這個因素也是我們所關注的。

So obviously, even the best-run banks in the world, if you're operating in a conflict zone, things could go wrong.

很明顯地，即便是世界經營最好的銀行，如果位在衝突地區，狀況也不會好到哪裡去。

So for that we've taken the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development, they have country risk classifications,

所以關於這點，我們將經濟合作與發展組織的國家危險分級納入考量，

which are designed to tell you the risk of, really of its export credits to those countries, so it looks at that kind of things.

這項分級會實際顯示與那些國家的出口信用程度。

Okay, and which types of banks have come out well in this ranking?

好，那麼就這個指數而言，有哪些種類的銀行表現不錯呢？

First of all, some more specialized banks have done well because of the business model.

首先，因為企業模式的關係，有些比較專業性銀行表現的不錯。

So for instance, we've got banks that are essentially asset managers with a banking license or custodian banks that look after client's assets.

舉例來說，有些銀行是有銀行業執照的資產管理公司，或是有的銀行負責代管客戶資產。

So they don't have lending risks.

所以這些銀行並沒有借貸風險。

Exactly. In terms of universal banks, one bank in the United States noticeably came out very well which is Wells Fargo.

沒錯。就綜合銀行來說，美國的某間銀行在結果上相當優異，那就是富國銀行。

They've been profitable for quite a while, they've also got a much higher capital ratio than a lot of other big American banks.

這間銀行收益獲利有段時間了，有著比很多美國的大銀行高很多的資本率。

In terms of regions, the region that really did quite well was the gulf state, and in particular Saudi Arabia.

就區域來說的話，表現相當不錯的是墨西哥灣沿岸各州，特別是在沙烏地阿拉伯。

A lot of Saudi banks came high up in the ranking. They've had good profitability, also they're very well capitalized.

有許多沙烏地銀行的指數表現也相當高。不但收益能力好，資本也很充足。

Okay, alright. So this is the first time, are we gonna carry on doing it next year?

這樣啊。這是第一次做，明年也會繼續嗎？

Absolutely, I mean from what we've seen it's an interesting ranking.

那當然，我們覺得這項指數很有趣。

And also we think that there are some enhancements we can make; we learn as we go along.

同時也有可以做得更好的部分，我們也在慢慢進步當中。

We're hoping to get a bit more data, and in particular being able to stretch some of the data back over a long time period,

希望能得到多一點資料，特別是將某些資料長時間保留起來，

so we can tell the things like profitability and not just recent, but do they have a track record of maintaining that kind of profitability over time.

像是收益能力，就能夠不只是看近期的資料而已，而是能再看他們是否有持續維持收益。

Okay, thank you very much, we look forward to the September issue of the Banker.

好，非常謝謝你，期待九月份的《銀行家》出版。