Zenith, FirstBank, GTbank, 7 others make Top 1,000 World Bank’s ranking

     
By Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor
LAGOS – Ten Nigerian banks have made the 2016 Top 1000 World Bank ranking by Financial Times. Seven, however, featured in the top 25 Africa Banks going by their shareholders fund position.

The banks are Zenith, which tops the Nigeria bank list with $2.837 billion shareholders fund. It was ranked the seventh top bank in Africa and 325th globally.

Agada Apochi of FirstBank; Segun Agbaje of GTBank and Peter Amangbo of Zenith bank
FirstBank ranked the second top bank in Nigeria with a shareholders fund of $2.036 billion, 11th top bank in Africa and occupied the 417th position in the global ranking.

Guaranty Trust Bank followed as the third top bank in Nigeria with shareholders fund of $1.673 billion and ranked 13th top bank in Africa and 490th in the world.

Next is Access Bank, which ranked 4th in Nigeria with a shareholders fund of $1.536 billion, rankled 14th in Africa and was positioned as the 522nd bank among the top 1000 banks in the world.

United Bank of Africa is positioned as the 5th largest bank in Nigeria with shareholders fund of $1.004 billion, ranked 18th in Africa and 670 in the global 1000 top banks. The six Nigeria bank that featured in the 1000top bank is Diamond Bank with shareholders fund of $912 million. It is ranked as the 20th top bank in Africa and the 711th bank in the world. Fidelity also featured in the top 1000 and top 25 banks in Africa. It has $729 million as shareholders fund and is the 802 bank in the 1000 top world banks ranking.

Ekobank Transnational with registered office in Lome with presence in Nigeria is ranked the sixth among the top 25 banks in Africa and 306th in the global ranking,

Data released by the Banker today showed that three banks that were among the top 1000 banks last year dropped out of the ranking. From the 13 banks that featured in the ranking in 2015, 0nly ten made it this time around.

The Banker in a statement said “Mirroring the Top 25 African banks ranking in 2015, three South African lenders, Standard Bank, FirstRand and Nedbank, have secured the respective top three positions. But a closer look at their performance reveals that all of these banks have suffered in the rankings largely as a result of the depreciating rand. Standard Bank’s total Tier 1 capital in the 2016 edition is $7.48bn, down from $10.19bn in the 2015 ranking. In the global rankings, Africa’s largest bank has now fallen from 123rd place to 160th.

“FirstRand fared slightly better, with Tier 1 capital declining marginally from $7.98bn in the 2015 ranking to $7.18bn in the 2016 edition. All six South African banks in this year’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking registered a fall in Tier 1 capital. In each case, this decline was by more than 10% year on year.

Global  ranking

“For Africa’s other major banking market, Nigeria, it was a similar story. In 2015, 13 lenders from the country were featured in the global ranking. In 2016 this has fallen to 10, with only two banks, Access Bank and Ecobank Nigeria, registering gains to their Tier 1 capital positions. This reflects the difficulties faced by the continent’s second biggest oil producer over the review period as low oil prices began to take their toll.  Togo’s Ecobank Transnational has retained its global ranking of 306th and has moved up the regional table one place to sixth.

“Beyond these larger markets, some African lenders have performed relatively well in the 2016 rankings. Building on their success in previous years, all three entries from Kenya recorded positive Tier 1 capital growth. Kenya Commercial Bank and Equity Bank both joined the continent’s Top 25 table in 2016 with a respective 2.24% and 29.82% growth in Tier 1 capital. The relative strength of this performance can in part be attributed to the performance of the Kenyan shilling in 2015, which declined modestly against the US dollar relative to many other African currencies.

Meanwhile, the dominance of Egyptian lenders in the top five banks by return on capital table has been cemented with the addition of Banque Misr, though the list is topped by Ethiopia’s CBE.

“The depreciating rand and falling oil prices have caused trouble in Africa, with South African and Nigerian lenders slipping down the overall rankings, but Kenyan entrants still managed to show Tier 1 growth. A number of Africa’s largest banking markets faced severe challenges over the 2015 review period. Tumbling commodity prices and volatile currency movements all contributed to the generally weak performance of most of the continent’s big hitters in the 2016 ranking. In aggregate terms, the continent’s total Tier 1 capital fell by 12.77%, accompanied by similar hits to both profitability and asset growth”.

The release further said “Chinese banks continue to dominate The Banker’s latest global ranking of Top 1000 banks, but they are showing signs of slowing down. Their profits fell 3.5% – the first drop since 2004 – and bad loans are on the rise, reflecting a weaker Chinese economy.

For the last few years China’s banks have dominated the ranking based on Tier 1 capital. This year Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) remains number 1 and China Construction Bank number 2, with 4 out of the top 5 places held by Chinese banks.

“Major Chinese banks grew their capital faster than their assets last year suggesting that they are becoming cautious and there are also signs of rising bad loans,” said The Banker’s editor Brian Caplen. “All the same, Chinese banking profits are by far the world’s largest and far higher than those of US and European banks.”

US banks did well in the ranking with JP Morgan placing third, Bank of America 6th, Citigroup 7th and Wells Fargo 8th. French banks remain competitive, with Credit Agricole staying in 11th place and BNP Paribas in 12th. French bank profits grew by 30% while both UK and German banks lost ground.

“UK bank profits fell 22% and HSBC is now the only British bank in the global top 10, placing 9th. The outlook for UK banks is even more uncertain following the surprise UK vote to leave the European Union. Back in 2006, before the financial crisis, HSBC was the world’s second largest bank, and Royal Bank of Scotland the 7th largest.

Losses at Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered, and profit falls at Barclays and Lloyds, helped pull down UK profits. German bank profits fell 63%, reflecting an impact from the eurozone crisis, and are now behind those of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, India and Brazil.

Key emerging  markets

Germany’s leading bank Deutsche fell into a loss and an 18% decrease in capital – the largest among the top 25 banks – sent the bank tumbling from 16th to 21st in the global ranking. Back in 2006 Europe’s banks contributed 42% of global banking profits. Now they only contribute 16%. By contrast, China’s share has gone from 4% to 32%. The US share has remained more constant at 27% in 2006 and 21% now.

“Key emerging markets such as Brazil, India and Russia performed badly in the ranking due to sharp decreases in their currencies against the dollar and/or falls in commodity prices causing economic slowdowns.

Russia’s Sberbank dropped 12 places from 43 to 51 and Brazil’s Itau fell 16 places from 41 to 57. Indian bank profits fell 65% and a number of Indian banks fell into losses.

But the best returns on capital are still to be found in emerging markets with 28% average returns in Africa, 22% in central and south America and 16% in Asia compared to 8% in western Europe”.