Though Singapore’s ‘big three’ continue to take the top spots in The Banker’s Top 100 Asean Banks ranking, the more notable performances come from lenders in Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Stefania Palma reports.

Cambodian banks stand out in The Banker’s 2017 Top 100 Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) ranking. Although only two Cambodian banks feature, lenders from the country outpace regional peers across the board in terms of year-on-year growth in Tier 1 capital, total assets and pre-tax profits. Cambodia’s Acleda Bank has jumped a healthy 17 places to 71st place, while Canadia Bank makes its debut in the ranking in 94th position. In the 2016 ranking, only one Cambodian bank made the Top 100.

Cambodian lenders registered an impressive 25.23% year-on-year aggregate growth in Tier 1 capital in 2015, the annual results from which the banks are ranked. Indonesia was the second strongest country for the year, with an aggregate increase of 9.36%. Vietnamese banks came a close third with 8.07%.

Cambodian and Vietnamese banks have also excelled in annual increases in total assets and pre-tax profits. Cambodian banks saw assets grow by 23.03% and pre-tax profits by 25.54%. Meanwhile, Vietnamese lenders have registered the second strongest growth in total assets and pre-tax profits at 13.36% and 8.7%, respectively. Cambodian and Vietnamese banks’ pre-tax profit performance was particularly strong given that banks in all other Asean jurisdictions registered year-on-year losses.

Going down

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Malaysian lenders have recorded the rankings’ largest year-on-year drops in Tier 1 capital, total assets and pre-tax profits of 10.06%, 11.47% and 20.37%, respectively. As with the 2016 ranking, the same two Malaysian banks, Maybank and Public Bank, feature in the top 10 Asean banks by Tier 1 capital. But while Maybank retains fourth place despite a 7.9% drop in Tier 1 capital, Public Bank’s 12.19% year-on-year drop in Tier 1 capital translates into a two-spot fall to eighth.

With regards to returns, Indonesian banks have continued to dominate the tables. Bank Rakyat Indonesia has registered the highest return on capital (ROC) at 34.78%, while Bank Central Asia recorded the strongest return on assets (ROA) at 3.81%. Indonesian lenders dominate the top 10 Asean banks ranking by ROC and ROA, with four and five lenders, respectively.

ASEAN rankings

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