In the past 18 months, Credit Suisse has grown its coal business from scratch to become one of the top three market-makers in financial coal markets in terms of turnover volumes. This achievement, at the heart of which was the bank's success in helping set up an options market, is why Credit Suisse has been voted Coal House of the Year 2009.

While competitors were taking on less risk and withdrawing from the coal market, Credit Suisse did the opposite, building up its coal derivatives team to