This year’s Top 1000 World banks shows aggregate levels of total Tier 1 capital increasing by 10.5% to $5433bn as banks move to hold more capital in the face of new regulation.
Although levels of Tier 1 capital have increased across all regions, western European banks fared the least well, with an aggregate change of 5.91% from last year.
This compares with an aggregate Tier 1 increase of 27.75% by African banks. However, while this is the highest change in Tier 1 in the 2011 ranking, African banks account for only 1.01% of the total Tier 1 capital in the overall rankings. Moreover, Africa's aggregate levels are heavily skewed by significant individual capital increases at a handful of South African banks, including Standard Bank (up by 26.15%), Absa Group (up by 22.84%), Nedbank (up by 24.39%) and Investec (up by 50.74%).
The Caribbean has also seen a significant increase in Tier 1 capital (up by 27.29%). Banks in Trinidad and Tobago, for example, which account for 55.85% of the region’s Tier 1 capital, have increased their capital from $3905m in 2010 to $4551.08m.
More predictably, Asia-Pacific banks continued their rise up the rankings. The region has increased its share of global Tier 1 capital to 30.8% this year, up from 25.5% in 2010. In particular, Chinese banks continue to grow at an astounding rate. The top five Chinese banks have increased their Tier 1 capital to a staggering $417.4bn from $299.2bn only a year before.
