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Top 1000 World Banks – QNB narrows gap with NCB for top Middle Eastern slot

Gulf lenders continue to dominate The Banker's top Middle Eastern lenders ranking, but Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank has had its lead cut by second placed Qatar National Bank.
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The strength of Middle Eastern lenders is once again underscored in 2015’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking. Most of the region’s leading institutions, particularly from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region, have jumped up the global rankings following a year of extensive capital strengthening. The dominance of Gulf institutions in the top 25 regional list has increased from 2014's ranking, with just four banks hailing from outside the GCC. 

Top 25 banks in the Middle East

Eight Saudi lenders are present in the Middle Eastern top 25, with National Commercial Bank once again taking the top spot. Yet this year, however, the gap to second place has narrowed appreciably. Qatar National Bank (QNB) has jumped from seventh place in the 2014 ranking to number two, and had fallen just shy of the number one spot. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Al Rajhi Bank climbed three places in the 2015 ranking to reach third in the regional top 25, while Emirates NBD and Samba Financial Group rounded out the top five to take fourth and fifth, respectively. Elsewhere, Banque Saudi Fransi and the Saudi British Bank both gained ground from 2014’s ranking, reaching a respective 12th and 13th in the 2015 ranking, an improvement of two places for both institutions. 

Last year's third placed lender in the Middle East, Israel's Bank Hapoalim, fell to eighth place in the 2015 regional list, the result of a marginal contraction in its Tier 1 capital. For similar reasons, Saudi Arabia's Riyad Bank also slid down the ranking, falling from second place to seventh. 

The two entries from Kuwait in the top 25 regional list, National Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait Finance House, have fallen from 11th and 12th position in 2014 to 14th and 15th, respectively, in this year's ranking. Both lenders have recorded marginal contractions in their Tier 1 capital over the review period. 

Mirroring the top 25 regional lenders ranking, the Middle East's highest movers category is dominated by Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates lenders. Yet, in the 2015 edition, Islamic lenders have come to the fore. Seven of the top 10 highest movers are sharia compliant, compared with just three – excluding Iranian lenders – in the 2014 ranking. 

Building on last year’s success in the return-on-capital regional ranking, Iranian banks secured the top five positions. Nevertheless, Iran’s lenders are relatively under capitalised compared with other jurisdictions in the Middle East rankings. Absent this year from the regional return-on-capital ranking is QNB, although its higher capitalisation levels go some way to explaining this.

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