European banks continue their progression on path to profits in 2000. In its edition of 16 July, the French daily, Les Echos, published the first part of its annual survey on European banks, from statistics collected by the database of the financial quotation agency Fitch. The year 2000 was a good year for the large European banks which, having found their way back to profits the previous year, continued on that path. In this first chapter, the daily provides the list of the 100 foremost establishments in 2000 according to return on own-funds (ration between net results and own-funds. Also called "return on equity" (or RoE), it is on of the measures for shareholder returns). Here are the most general conclusions that may be drawn from the "Top 100": 1) seventeen countries are present (the EU Fifteen plus Norway and Sweden), the countries most represented being Germany (26 establishments, or a quarter of the success stories), the United Kingdom (13), Italy (12), France (8), Spain (7), the Netherlands (5) and Switzerland (4), as well as three multinational groups (DEXIA, FORTIS and NORDEA); 2) 17 banks entered the list, notably due to rapprochement (banks controlled by others are eliminated); 3) thirty banking groups exceeded the billion euro in net profits against 26 in 1999, and 40 banks recorded a return on equity in excess of 15% (they were only 36 in 1999). The ten foremost accumulated results, moreover, are close to 54 bn euro, up by some 50% in relation to the ten foremost profits the previous year.; 4) in 2000, the ING group had the largest profits, and, at the same time, saw a steep fall in its equity, whence a spectacular rise to the second place in the RoE classification (it was 31st in 1999); 5) the Belgian bank KBC, for its part, made remarkable progress from 44th to 6th place, mainly due to the takeover of CCF, of which KBC was one of the main shareholders, by HSBC; 6) British banks still have a strong position in the league: five of them having an RoE in excess of 20%; 7) French banks made their appearance in the first quarter of the classification: SOCIETE GENERALE thus moved from 28th to 20th position, whereas BNP PARIBAS rose from 45th to 25th place; 8) Italy also progressed and now has three of its large banks in the European top 30 (UNICREDITO ITALIANO (22nd), SAN PAOLO IMI (24th) and BANCA NAZIONALE DEL LAVORO (27th)). Only hiccup: BANCA DI ROMA remains among the bottom of the classification with a level of return still well down in relation to European standards; 9) the two large Swiss banks (UBS and CREDIT SUISSE) still perform well and remain among the 20 top RoE (15th and 17th, respectively), despite large American acquisitions (PINWEBBER and DLJ); 10) the large Spanish banks maintain their positions losing a few places; 11) at the bottom of the table, we still find an over-representation of German banks, notably due to strong competition on their home market.