Nigerian Banks have made it to the top 1000 World Bank Rankings. Thirteen Nigerian banks were listed among the Leading 1000 Global Banks as published by The Banker magazine of the Financial Times Group in its 2014 edition. Ranking based on Tier-1 capital was used and Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, FirstBank, Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Fidelity Bank and Ecobank Nigeria were some of the banks that made this list. Others are Skye Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and Union Bank of Nigeria.
For the first time since the global financial crisis, The report, which was released this weekend stated that banks in the world returned profit of $920 billion which is 23 per cent more than their previous peak of $786 billion achieved in 2007 before the financial crisis. The report underlines Nigeria’s financial sector’s leading position in Africa as no other African country has up to 13 banks in the Top 1000 World listing of banks.
According to the report, Zenith Bank ranked top in Nigeria at 293 as Guaranty Trust is on number 415, FirstBank on number 424, Access Bank 532, United Bank for Africa ranked 539 and Fidelity 622. The report said profit on capital of three Nigerian banks that are not foreign-owned subsidiaries increased. These are FirstBank, that has its profit on capital increased to 25.32 per cent from 25.13 per cent; Access Bank, from 21.19 per cent to 21.24 per cent and First City Monument Bank, 15.77 per cent from 15.07 per cent.
Editor of the magazine, Mr. Brain Caplen disclosed that a large proportion of the profit is from China— about 32 per cent of the total which is more than the next three highest profit countries of USA, Japan and Canada combined. Of the 25 top banks in Africa from the ranking, the highest of eight is from Nigeria, the largest economy in the continent while the United Bank for Africa is the only Nigerian bank in the top 10 highest movers in Africa.
The 31 African banks in the ranking are from nine countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Angola, Gabon, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco and Togo.
The Banker, a publication of Financial Times Newspaper which is regarded as the most influential newspaper in the world, is a global financial intelligence magazine published since 1926. It is the definitive publication that provides guide to bank ratings and analysis globally and the definitive reference on international banking for finance experts, governments, chief finance officers, CEOs, Central Bank Governors, Finance Ministers, and other decision makers globally.