With a credit crunch still stalking the corridors of the world's banks, it's hardly surprising they were the big losers on the BBC's Global 30 last year. Citigroup and HSBC can hardly have been expected to have had a good year.

The chief executives of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were forced out of their jobs, and several big banks have had to go cap in hand to China, Singapore and Abu Dhabi for capital injections.
But Mitsubishi's fate in Japan is more unexpected after its early protestations that its sub-prime mortgage related losses were minimal.
Whatever economists may claim about the prospect of Asia decoupling from the U.S. and European markets, the pull of globalization is strong, and the sub-prime virus has been breeding in the globalization incubator.
This last month Mitsubishi said its sub-prime related losses for the full year may total 170 billion yen, about $1.5 billion.
But Mitsubishi's woes go beyond those of the U.S. housing market and lie in the deep disappointment that surrounds the Japanese economy.
Of the six biggest fallers this year on the Global 30, five are Japanese.
It's worth looking at the broader indices too: the Nikkei 225 was the worst performing of all the Asian markets and the worst performing major market anywhere.
The recovery that so many believed was well under way, fizzled out over the summer.
Even Toyota and Canon fell as investors worried about their ability to keep exports booming in the face of a possible U.S. recession and a possible fall in the U.S. dollar against the yen (neither of which has in fact happened - yet).
East Japan Railway managed a small gain of 16%.
It has a large and constant revenue from its huge real estate, travel, and restaurant businesses, and thus has all the characteristics of a sound defensive stock, a safe haven in uncertain times.
For good returns one only had to look over the water to China, where China Mobile rose a staggering 92.5%.
But even here the future does not look that encouraging and the gravy train has slowed.
The stock hit a high at the end of October, and has since come off 13%, largely in the light of the government's professed desire to have more competition in the domestic market.
The giant Chinese oil production company CNOOC followed the same pattern, falling back in the last two months as investors grew wary of its expansion plans.
In fact, while there are signs among Asia's biggest companies that the shine may be coming off their booming economies, several US names have shown themselves to be very resilient.
The three best performers in the US were Exelon, the country's biggest energy group, AT&T (now successfully merged with Bell South), and Exxon, up 16.7% on the back of an oil price that has in the last few months come within a whisker of $100 dollars a barrel. US crude touched $100 a barrel on Wednesday.
(Source: BBC)