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DatabankJuly 3 2017

Paris extends European lead for IFC assets

Paris remains the largest IFC in western Europe by assets, extending its lead over its rivals, as Silvia Pavoni reports.
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Based on The Banker’s latest Top 1000 World Bank Rankings, the list of western Europe’s largest international financial centres (IFCs) by assets is seeing the distance between the leader, Paris, and its peers widening further.

The French capital continues to overshadow others with a total of $6018bn in aggregate assets for lenders headquartered there. While this figure is only a moderate improvement on our ranking in 2016 all centres in the following positions, through to ninth, witnessed a contraction.

Turin is in 10th place with an expansion of 3.8%. This is explained by movements in the size of Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s second largest bank by assets and largest lender by Tier 1 capital, which is headquartered in the Piedmontese city.

Most other IFCs in the lower part of the ranking saw assets shrink during the 2016 financial year. The largest drop is Wiesbaden in Germany, with an 11.06% contraction, followed by Dublin, with 10.87%.

Assets reductions are mirrored by even larger cuts in profits across the region. Madrid’s pre-tax profits dropped by more than 43% while London, and Montrouge in France, home to Crédit Agricole, contracted by more than one-fifth.

The noticeable exception is Frankfurt, where aggregate results moved from loss to profit thanks to Deutsche Bank’s improved performance. Although still in the red, Germany’s largest lender has contained its losses to $853m, a figure 87% smaller than previously recorded. Frankfurt is western Europe’s third largest IFC by banking assets and Tier 1 capital.

When it comes to capital size, however, London displaces its French rival, with $303bn against Paris’s $256bn.

Only data for banks included in The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking was considered. All figures refer to the 2016 financial year.

IFCs in weatern Europe 0617

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Read more about:  Databank , Rankings & data , Western Europe
Silvia Pavoni is editor in chief of The Banker. Silvia also serves as an advisory board member for the Women of the Future Programme and for the European Risk Management Council, and is part of the London council of non-profit WILL, Women in Leadership in Latin America. In 2019, she was awarded an honorary fellowship by City University of London.
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