Share the article
twitter-iconcopy-link-iconprint-icon
share-icon

Top 1000 World Banks – Western Europe's global standing diminishes again

A patchy economic performance in western Europe in 2015 saw its lenders slide further down the global rankings. HSBC is clinging on to its global top 10 position, however, while there is some good news for Greek and Italian lenders.
Share the article
twitter-iconcopy-link-iconprint-icon
share-icon

The global importance of western European banks is continuing to decline after the overall Tier 1 capital in the largest 25 institutions fell for a second year running.

Western Europe new

Data for the 2016 ranking saw a reduction in capital in the top 25 and while eight institutions increased their capital base year on year, this only amounted to a combined total of $15.23bn – Deutsche Bank alone, the top lender with the highest reduction in capital, saw its level fall by $14.26bn and by one position in the European ranking to seventh. This comes on the back of heavy losses of $6.63bn in its fiscal 2015 data and a 14.6% reduction in assets.

But even banks that increased their capital have seen their growth dwarfed by other regions, with all but three Top 25 western European banks – the UK's HSBC and Standard Chartered and Dutch ABN Amro – dropping in the overall ranking.

However, in the case of banks with euro-denominated results, the ranking was also affected by a foreign exchange impact: the euro saw about a 10% reduction in the exchange rate value from €0.82 per $1 in the 2015 ranking to €0.92 per $1 this year.

HSBC is still the leading western European bank and remains the only European institution in the global top 10, with a slight increase in capital of $564m to $153.3bn. Its sits in ninth place globally.

Highest movers included Greece’s Attica Bank, which increased its Tier 1 capital by 79.08%, and Piraeus Bank Group, with 22.93%, after Greece’s banks needed to be recapitalised as a condition of the country’s international bailout. Three Italian banks also boosted their capitalisation.

The ranking for the highest return on capital (ROC) is dominated by banks with a focus on asset management and private banking, such as Italy’s Banca Generali, which reported by far the largest ROC of 62.01%. Italy's Banca Mediolanum and the UK’s Schroeders and Close Brothers, which were among the leading western European banks for ROC in the 2015 ranking, take spots two to four. 

Was this article helpful?

Thank you for your feedback!