The good times are back – but not for everyone. After just one year’s deleveraging in The Banker’s Top 1000 World Bank ranking last year, assets are growing again, by 6.4%, to cross the $100 trillion mark for the first time. And profits are soaring, up 77% to $709bn for the 2010 financial year, just $80bn short of the pre-crisis peak in 2007.
Banks are also continuing to step up their capitalisation levels. Total Tier 1 capital for the Top 1000 rose 10.5%, to $5433bn, comfortably outpacing the growth in assets. This means the trend towards higher capital-to-assets ratios worldwide continues unabated. Among the 25 largest banks by Tier 1 capital, capitalisation is rising even more sharply – Tier 1 capital was up 12.1%, whereas assets grew more slowly than for the Top 1000 as a whole, by 5.9%.
