Overall, the capital adequacy of the Top 1000 World Banks has improved compared with 2016’s ranking. Average Tier 1 capital is up by 3.9%, total assets are up by 3.0% and the global average capital assets ratio (CAR) is up from 6.44% to 6.50%. The Tier 1 capital of China and North America is up, by 5.7% and 5%, respectively.
However, not all regions are performing well. Western Europe, which holds the largest amount of Tier 1 capital, has seen declines across all three categories: a 4.3% drop in Tier 1 capital; a 3.4% decline in total assets; and a 0.05% contraction in average CAR.
For two years in a row, Bahrain’s First Energy Bank has finished first in the top 25 banks measured by CAR, despite showing a decline in this year's ranking from 67.64% to 60.3%. It is now the only bank in the Top 1000 to have a ratio above 50%, compared with five banks in the 2014 rankings. US-based United National Corporation (UNC) and Banco Hipotecario del Uruguay rank second and third, respectively.
They replace Danish bank FIH Erhvervsbank and US-based Lauritzen Corporation, which have dropped out of the Top 1000, the former because it entered into liquidation and the latter because its Tier 1 capital was under the minimum threshold. Beal Bank, a US-based retail bank founded by financier Andy Beal in 1998, enters the CAR rankings for the first time in fourth place.
US bank Briscoe Ranch is the soundest bank in the Top 1000, as measured by the Bank for International Settlements capital ratio, also for the second year. It remains well in front, but with a reduced ratio compared with last year, followed by UNC and Nederlandse Waterschapsbank. Italian group ICBPI leaps into the ranking in fourth place, following its purchase by three private equity funds in 2015.
