Banks in central and eastern Europe (CEE) have seen an overall increase in capital in the 2017 Top 1000 ranking. The aggregate Tier 1 capital of the top 25 banks in the region rose to $114.4bn, compared with last year’s $91.7bn, largely driven by the strong pick-up in figures by Russian banks.
Russia’s largest bank, state-owned Sberbank, has increased its Tier 1 capital by nearly $14.5bn since the 2016 ranking, making it comfortably the largest bank in the region. The increase also saw it rise in the overall ranking, from last year’s 51st place to 36th this year. Sberbank also has one of the region’s highest returns on capital with 24.82%.