Having already lost global importance in the last two Top 1000 rankings, in 2017’s ranking western European banks continue to trail international peers. Tier 1 capital has fallen at 15 out of the top 25 banks in the region, compared with last year’s ranking. It leaves this year’s aggregate top 25 capitalisation $65.2bn lower than last year’s $1331.8bn – a drop that would have been even further were it not for the French banks.
All six French-owned banks have increased their capitalisation compared with our 2016 ranking and five of them have high enough Tier 1 capital to place them among the region’s largest banks. French banks have also reported the majority of profits in the region.