Banks from Citigroup Inc. (C) in the U.S. to BNP Paribas SA (BNP) in France are racing to shed assets and raise money ahead of new global capital rules that start taking effect in 2015. For Canadian lenders, these moves have created the opportunity to go on a shopping spree.

Canada's six largest banks have spent $37.8 billion since 2008 on about 100 acquisitions at home and abroad, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its June issue.

"We and our Canadian competitors are only able to do that because we have some flexibility as a result of our strength," says Gerald McCaughey, chief executive officer of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, which bought JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s minority stake in asset management firm American Century Investments last year. "Over the longer term, this should actually help to maintain the strength of the Canadian banking system and its competitiveness."

CIBC (CM) was No. 3 in Bloomberg Markets' second annual ranking of the world's strongest banks, followed by three of its Canadian rivals: Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) (No. 4), National Bank of Canada (NA) (No. 5) and Royal Bank of Canada (No. 6), the country's largest lender. Bank of Nova Scotia ranked 18th, and Bank of Montreal was 22nd.

OCBC Is No. 1

Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. retained the title of the world's strongest bank for the second year, followed byBOC Hong Kong Holdings Ltd. (2388) Two other Singaporean lenders -- United Overseas Bank Ltd. (UOB) (No. 7) and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. (DBS) (No. 8) -- were also among the strongest. "Singapore's economy has performed quite stably and quite well, and for the Singaporean banks, we have real economic activities to finance," Oversea-Chinese Banking CEO Samuel Tsien says. He credits the bank's strength partly to its risk management practices.

David Fuller's view Fullermoney has long regarded the performance of banks as both a lead indicator for stock markets and a litmus test regarding a country's financial condition. Of the banks mentioned above, Citigroup and BNP Paribas have clearly struggled. Citigroup yields only 0.13% and BNP's 4.13% payout may be difficult to maintain.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce 4.98%, Toronto-Dominion 4.59%, National Bank of Canada 4.15, Royal Bank of Canada 4.22%, Bank of Nova Scotia 4.17% and Bank of Montreal 4.98%, have attractive yields, remain investment grade and are generally outperforming the Canada TSX Composite Index.

Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp 3.38%, BOC Hong Kong Holdings 4.90%, Singapore's United Overseas Bank 3.27% and DBS Group Holdings 3.96% round out this list of top-rated, blue-chip banks.

These banks lack the growth potential and therefore glamour of leading Autonomies which remain Fullermoney's most favoured asset class. Nevertheless, in a yield-starved world in which the outlook for government bonds is questionable, to put it mildly, the world's top rated banks offer relative safety, income and some growth potential. They are best purchased, in my opinion, on easing within market corrective phases such as we are currently experiencing.