Changes to rankings in level of capitalisation in European banking. - According to “Les Echos” (a Belgian newspaper), the biggest European capitalisation operations have developed quite considerably over the last six months. The British HSBC and the Spanish Santander banks maintain their first and second place rankings in market capitalisations with €102.6bn and €68.4bn respectively (as opposed to €83.7bn and €53.9bn on 31 December) but the pressure is on for the runners up that follow. BNP Paribas (€49.1bn in market capitalisation), Credit Suisse (€36.9bn) and Barclays come in at third, fourth and fifth places and appear to be the big winners in the first half of the year on the markets thanks to record revenue in the first quarter from currency transactions. They are ahead of Intesa Sanpaolo (which goes from third to eighth place with a market capitalisation of €28.3bn), BBVA (4th to 6th place with €32.9bn in capitalisation) and UBS (5th to 9th place with €27.4bn in capitalisation). Credit Suisse is the biggest loser in the league table with a loss of 2 billion Swiss francs in the first quarter of the year. (I.L./transl.rh)