Newer EU member countries in central and eastern Europe are notable for their performance in terms of returns and growth, as The Banker's Top 200 EU Banks ranking shows.

Europe’s banking troubles are reflected in The Banker's Top 200 EU Banks. While western European banks dominate the ranking, banks from the newer member countries in central and eastern Europe have triumphed in terms of returns and growth.

The bank with the highest return on capital and the sixth highest return on assets (ROA) is Slovakia’s Postova banka. While the bank is second from bottom (199th) in the top 200 ranking by Tier 1 capital, it notched up a 51.68% profits on average capital ratio and a 2.84% ROA.

A similar story comes from some of the Polish banks, with Getin Noble and Bank Ochrony Srodowiska at 129 and 186, respectively, in the main ranking but featuring at eighth and ninth, respectively, in the top 10 banks by asset growth. Getin Noble’s assets grew 24.23% and Bank Ochrony Srodowiska’s grew by 21.86%.

In the top 10 banks by ROA, Home Credit is in number one position with a huge 11.58% ROA. Home Credit is headquartered in the Netherlands but its profits come from consumer credit operations in central and eastern Europe. In the overall Tier 1 ranking it comes in at 132. Home Credit also comes third in the top 10 banks by capital assets ratio with 22.75%.

High risk, high return

Other banks from the central and eastern Europe region in the top 10 ROA ranking are Poland’s PKO Bank Polski at eighth (59th overall) with 2.4% ROA and Hungary’s OTP Bank at 10th (64th overall) with 1.99% ROA. OTP, however, is also the bank with the third highest level of non-performing loans accounting for 13.7% of total loans and reflecting the rocky nature of the Hungarian market with high risks and high returns.

Spanish savings banks, the cajas, have been busy merging as a way of shoring up their strength. For this reason, two Spanish banks top the assets growth ranking – Caja España de Inversiones, Salamanca y Soria has the highest assets growth with 98.28% growth (overall Tier 1 position 75) and Novacaixagalicia came in second with 37.51% growth (overall position 63). Caja Espana also tops the highest Tier 1 growth table with a 116.33% increase and is joined in ninth position by CatalunyaCaixa with a 27.47% increase.

In the main ranking, the major European banking names dominate, with HSBC way out in the lead with $133bn of Tier 1 capital. Royal Bank of Scotland, in the midst of a downsizing (with assets down 17% and Tier 1 capital down 24%), is in second position with $94bn.

Bank capital then tends to drop by about half for every 10 places in the ranking for the top three deciles – France’s Groupe BPCE is in 10th place with $54.8bn, Belgium’s Dexia in 20th place with $24.6bn and Sweden’s Svenksa Handelsbanken is in 30th place with $13.1bn.

New entrants 

The highest bank from a new entrant country is Slovenia’s Nova Ljubljanska Banka at 116, with Tier 1 capital of $1.33bn. But it is also a bank with high non-performing loans at 14.5%. Slovenian banks do well in the ranking. Abanka Vipa comes in at 159 with $530m of Tier 1 capital, followed by Gorenjska Banka at 169 with $466m, Nova Kreditna at 175 with $421m and Banka Celje at 188 with $295m. For a country with the sixth smallest gross domestic product of the EU27 and only 2 million people, Slovenia’s banking system seems to be making rapid progress.

In profits growth, however, it is Denmark’s Nykredit that comes top after a 2757% increase, followed by Austria’s Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark with a 840% rise, and the Cooperative Central Bank of Cyprus with a 728% rise.

The fortunes of European banks will vary widely over the next few years. Banks in eurozone countries that are under pressure – Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece – may feel the fallout from their sovereigns' troubles. Emerging Europe, where indebtedness is less and markets are expanding fast, may see its banks accelerate.

Top 200 EU banks 2011

PLEASE ENTER YOUR DETAILS TO WATCH THIS VIDEO

All fields are mandatory

The Banker is a service from the Financial Times. The Financial Times Ltd takes your privacy seriously.

Choose how you want us to contact you.

Invites and Offers from The Banker

Receive exclusive personalised event invitations, carefully curated offers and promotions from The Banker



For more information about how we use your data, please refer to our privacy and cookie policies.

Terms and conditions

Join our community

The Banker on Twitter