This year’s Top 1000 World Bank ranking shows that the banking sector’s profits are returning to pre-crisis levels, with Asia-Pacific leading the way.
The aggregated pre-tax profits of all the banks in The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks increased by 77% to $709bn according to this year’s ranking, as banks start to recover to 2007 levels.
Central and Eastern European banks’ profits increased an astounding 759%, bringing the region back to 2007 levels. Several Russian banks have seen huge changes in profits this year including Sberbank (665%), Alfa Bank (465%), Nomos Bank (1342%), Bank Saint Petersburg (568%) and Orient Express Bank (1538%).
North American banks also fared well. In Canada, all but one of the country’s 11 banks in this year’s Top 1000 grew profits by more than 20%, continuing to highlight their resilience.
US banks also boosted profits, Citigroup returns to the top 25 banks by profits, with posting $12.27bn profit this year, up from a loss in 2010’s Top 1000. Also performing well are US top 10 banks: JPMorgan (53%), Morgan Stanley (498%), HSBC North America Holdings (93%) PNC Financial Group (41%) and US Bancorp (64%) helping increase North America’s regional profit share from 13.78% last year to 20.27% this year.
Chinese banks’ combined profits reached $149.8bn in this year’s results, compared to $114.4bn in the US. The top five most profitable banks in China have doubled their profits to $165188m from $74411m last year, underscoring the region’s continued dominance in this year’s rankings.
