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Top 1000 World Banks – National Commercial Bank retains Middle East lead

Middle Eastern banks continue to show impressive Tier 1 capital growth, with Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank and Qatar National Bank breaking into the global top 90 for the first time. Among the rest, National Bank of Abu Dhabi is the region's big winner.
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The Middle East has once again eclipsed most other regions by Tier 1 capital growth with an aggregate increase of 13.32% in the 2016 rankings. As expected, this performance was again driven by Gulf based banks. In The Banker's 2016 Top 1000 World Banks, Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank and Qatar National Bank (QNB) have for the first time assumed positions in the top 90 banks globally, coming in at 87th and 89th, respectively. 

Middle East

QNB has maintained its position at number two in the top 25 Middle Eastern banks ranking. The gap to the number one spot, held by National Commercial Bank, has increased by only a marginal figure. The only notable change in the top five spots is the presence of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). With a 14.56% increase in Tier 1 capital in the 2016 rankings, NBAD has climbed to fifth spot in the Middle East ranking, pushing Saudi Arabia’s Samba Financial Group into sixth. 

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank has also climbed one spot to 10th position in the 2016 ranking. This follows a 9.92% increase in Tier 1 capital. Saudi British Bank jumped two places to take 11th place, while Banque Saudi Fransi moved up one position to 12th after these banks recorded a respective 8.07% and 5.97% increase to their Tier 1 capital over the review period. 

Bank Leumi le-Israel, which came in at 10th place in the 2015 ranking, is now 13th in the Middle East top 25. This follows a much smaller increase in Tier 1 capital – 2.81% – compared with the regional average. Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest lender by Tier 1 capital, maintained eighth spot in the 2016 table, while Israel Discount Bank slipped to 25th place, from 23rd in the 2015 ranking, as it saw its Tier 1 capital fall by -0.43% over the review period. 

Meanwhile, Qatar Islamic Bank is the only new entry in the top 25 Middle East banks ranking. This follows a sustained period of strong growth for the sharia-compliant lender with Tier 1 capital growing by 26.36% over the review period. 

A look at the region’s 10 highest movers in the 2016 rankings reveals the presence of three Omani banks and two Qatari lenders. Not a single Saudi bank made it into the top 10 table for 2016, compared with three in the 2015 edition. Meanwhile, the return on capital table was once again dominated by Iranian lenders, thanks in part to their relatively lower capitalisation levels. 

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