The ranking of the top 25 most profitable banks in this year’s Top 1000 World Banks is mainly an emerging markets story. It is heavily dominated by Latin American institutions, which account for 10 places in the top 25, four of which are Venezuelan.
Venezuela’s banks have performed particularly well this year on the back of limited competition and the 5.1% gross domestic product growth the economy enjoyed in 2012. Venezuela’s six banks in the Top 1000 posted aggregate profits of $5.38bn and the highest aggregate return on capital (ROC) of 54.23% of all Latin American countries.