South African institutions still dominate Africa's most profitable banks list, with six of the 10 top African banks by pre-tax profits based in the country. Standard Bank Group is the most profitable bank by a distance, with $2.8bn in pre-tax profits. This is despite recording a decrease of 4.34% in annual profits. Three other South Africa-based lenders, FirstRand, Absa Group and Investec, saw their annual pre-tax profits decrease by 10.3%, 2.34% and 9.67%, respectively, but still placed in the top 10.
The most profitable African bank outside of South Africa is Morocco-based Attijariwafa Bank, with $927m in pre-tax profit. Attijariwafa recorded an annual increase in profits of 9.88%. The largest annual increase inside the top 10 was recorded by Algeria's Banque Nationale d'Algerie, which saw annual profits rise by 40.55% to $608m. Nigeria-based Guaranty Trust Bank recorded an annual increase of 21.96% to $392m. Banque Nationale d'Algerie and Guaranty Trust Bank were both new entrants to the top 10, replacing two Egypt-based institutions, National Bank of Egypt and Commercial International Bank, which were ranked sixth and 10th, respectively, in the previous year's profitability ranking.
See the full African bank rankings – South Africa keeps African banking's top spots.
