Yoshinobu Yamada Deutsche Securities

Yoshinobu Yamada of Deutsche Securities jumps from runner-up to second place. “He is able to crystallize the myriad and often irrelevant details that drive bank earnings and valuations into a few concise paragraphs, and his forecasts tend to be very accurate,” says one impressed investor. Yamada covers 12 institutions — five large-cap and seven regional banks — and is urging clients to overweight the bigger firms, owing to their continuous loan growth in overseas branches, among other factors. The analyst likes Tokyo-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a major buyer of assets and business units from European banks. “Due to low growth opportunities in Japan, banks need to expand their overseas business,” he explains. “MUFG is in the best position among the major banks, thanks to having the largest number of existing branches.”  — Leslie Kramer