Banks around the world are making more money than ever, but Canadian players have fallen out of the top ranks, according to a new survey.

According to the annual survey by The Banker magazine, the world’s 1,000 largest banks generated more profit per dollar of capital in 2000 than any time in the previous decade.

The strong global economy last year fed banks’ profits to a total of US$317 billion, up from US$310 billion in 1999. Minimal loan losses are being credited with the record.

European banks led the profit parade, contributing 42% of global profits, compared to 32% for U.S. banks, and just 3% for the struggling Japanese sector.

Citigroup stays atop the rankings as the world’s biggest bank, as measured by Tier One capital. Japanese conglomerate, Mizuho Financial Group, formed through the merger of Fuji Bank , Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Industrial Bank of Japan, ranks second. Together Citigroup and Mizuho account for 5.9% of the Top 1000 aggregate capital.

The top five are rounded out by Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and HSBC Holdings. No Canadian bank even ranks in the top 25. Ranking by profit or assets doesn’t produce a top 25 Canadian player either.

The survey doesn’t hold out much hope for the industry’s performance this year. “In trying to assess how bad the current situation is and how long it will last, the key difference between this and other recent downturns is that the U.S. is in decline and the world’s second largest economy, Japan, is in much worse shape and both are happening at the same time. When you throw in concerns about Argentina, Turkey and Brazil and worries over the euro, the uncertainties facing the financial world are significant.”

Comparing this and previous downturns, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter global economist Steve Roach says, “The new global contagion may end up being far more lethal than that which almost brought the global economy to its knees in late 1998.”