Brazil's banks maintain Latin American dominance
While Brazil's banks predictably take the top spots in The Banker's Top 150 Latin American Banks ranking, a stellar year for Argentina's banks saw them posting impressive return-on-asset ratios.
Although the order is slightly reshuffled, Brazil’s top five lenders lead The Banker’s rankings of Latin American banks once again. Itaú Unibanco retains its top position with $36.92bn in Tier 1 capital, an 11.31% increase on last year. Itaú has quickly joined the group of Latin American companies expanding outside of their national borders and within the region – the ‘multilatinas’ – creating further integration and economic growth for the whole of Latin America. Colombia’s Bancolombia – top lender in its country and the 13th strongest bank in the regional ranking – is also part of the expanding group.
Unsurprisingly, Brazilian banks also top the profits table. Itaú Unibanco takes the lead again with an impressive pre-tax profit of $11.53bn, followed by Banco do Brasil, Banco Bradesco and Santander Brasil. Fifth position is occupied by Mexico’s BBVA Bancomer – sixth in the Tier 1 capital table.
It is also a Brazilian lender that leads the highest capital growth tables, the smaller Banco Sumitomo Mitsui Brasileiro (87th position in the overall rankings), which has expanded its Tier 1 capital by an impressive 139.41%. Its assets have also significantly grown and are 47.97% bigger than in last year's ranking.
Argentina's rise
If Brazil overshadows other Latin American countries by most measures, a record year for Argentina's banks in 2010 granted the country all but one of the top 10 places in the return-on-assets (ROA) ratios table. Banco de San Juan, Deutsche Bank Argentina and Nuevo Banco de Santa Fe, which are all relatively low in the Tier 1 capital rankings, occupy the top three positions of the ROA rankings, with ratios as high as 11.68% at Banco de San Juan.
A wider research effort has made sure that more lenders could be included in The Banker’s top Latin American banks rankings, meaning that the number of lenders featured has increased from 100 to 150. The country breakdown gives a better understanding of banks’ strength within their home markets. Although the past 12 months was not a period of great movement, The Banker’s data shows stronger capital positions, larger assets and good profits for most lenders – a reflection of the strong economic growth most Latin American markets are experiencing. It remains to be seen whether such growth will be affected by mounting problems elsewhere in the world.
