On 11 and 12 July, Les Echos published an annual listing of the 100 leading European banks, established from statistics collected by the Fitch Ratings agency. The banks were selected according to size (balance sheet total) and the profitability of their own funds (or RoE, the ratio between net result and own funds) and their operating coefficient (the ratio between general costs and operating receipts), two key criteria for measuring the success of a financial establishment. EUROPE has today published the results of RoE (those of the operating coefficient will be published next week). Globally, the European banks have continued to grow with regard to profits, with near to record performances in 32 banks that have profitability of over 15% in 2004 (there were only 24 in 2003). In absolute terms, profits were at record highs: 33 banks in 2004 exceeded the one billion bar for net profits compared to 27 one year earlier. Also, there are now only 6 banks in deficit compared to 9 last year. They are all German except the 96th (BNL - Italy). The following classification gives the Top 10 and the five last for 2004: [For the table, please refer to the paper version]. In more detail: 1) two of the ten highest profit margins were in Irish banks. Also, the four banks of this country appear in the first 20 places, the first held by one of them (DEPFA BANK); 2) Benelux' performance is good: ING (4th) and ABN AMRO (5th) among the top five. The Belgian-Dutch bank FORTIS (9th) ranks among the top ten and KBC (22nd) has climbed 24 places; 3) the United Kingdom and Spain are still in the lead: within the first 20 RoE, there are 6 British banks against 5 in 2003. All the British banks are improving their RoE except for LLOYDS TSB (3rd). The Spanish banks remain good pupils, the ten in the selection all being in the top 50. Nonetheless, none of them are among the Top 10 with the best net profits; 4) all the French banks have profits on the rise or stable except for CREDIT MUTUEL (58th). None are now in the first 25 (SOCIETE GENERALE falls from 25 to 26th place) and they are in an average position compared to the other European players; 5) Showing improvement in Italy and Germany: at the bottom of the table, 16 banks have an RoE below 5% compared to 24 in 2004. They are all German except for one British and two Italian banks (there were 8 Italian banks in 2003). ANTONVENETA has leapt from 99th to 60th position. The Germanic banks lag behind in the classification but the situation has ceased to decline. The DEUTSCHE BANK has jumped forward in spectacular fashion from 80th to 55th position.