Korea

Best bank
Kookmin Bank Best equities house
Goldman Sachs

Best debt house
Citigroup

Best M&A house
Morgan Stanley

Kookmin Bank, like several other local firms, has suffered recently from Korea?s credit card crisis. This came after a government-led initiative encouraged leading banks aggressively to push their credit card businesses, which resulted in an average of 4.5 cards per economically active citizen and led to a series of bankruptcies.

Kookmin?s 2003 financial results reflect the aftershocks of the national credit card madness. But it remains by some margin Korea?s strongest bank and this alone argues for its retaining the best bank award for the third consecutive year.