De-leveraging, the process of banks paying off debt and closing credit lines, is rapidly becoming the word du jour for international banks. But some institutions see opportunities to expand in the wreckage of the credit quake shaking financial markets.

Japanese banks, long seen as slow and dull compared with the high-octane banking practices common in the west, are capitalising on the travails of other international financial houses and expanding into the Middle East, seizing market share and forming closer ties with regional governments.