Japanese banks outperform rest of Asia-Pacific in 2013

TOKYO - Japanese banks dominated the list of top-performing Asia-Pacific banks, taking 10 of the top 15 spots and the first six positions in 2013. Top performers also included banks from Australia, Pakistan and Taiwan. The National Bank of Pakistan's 10.5% dividend yield was the highest among all public banks covered by SNL Financial in the Asia-Pacific region.

Seven of the Asia-Pacific banks with the lowest total return in 2013 were in Thailand, while Chinese banks took four spots and banks in India and Indonesia each took two places. Banks in southern Asia did not fare well. The SNL South Asia Bank Index and the SNL Southeast Asia Bank Index recorded negative total returns of 20.81% and 1.16%, respectively, in 2013. www.snl.com (ATI).