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United National steadfast in its ROA crown

For the second year in a row, US community bank United National tops the league tables for this profitability metric. 
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United National Corporation, a large US community bank, maintained its top spot for return on assets (ROA) by improving its ratio from 14.80% to 16.38%. For the second year in a row, it is the only bank in the Top 1000 World Banks ranking to achieve a double-digit ROA.

Compatriot, Texas-headquartered Beal Bank, has the second-highest ROA ratio at 8.04%, a significant jump from the last time the bank made the table in 2019, when its ROA was 2.53%.

Rounding out the overall top five banks are Banco de Fomento Angola with an ROA of 5.94%, the US’s Discover Financial Services with 4.94% and Russia’s Tinkoff Bank with 4.81%. 

Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank achieved an ROA of 3.82%, giving it the top slot for the Asia-Pacific (excluding China and Japan) ROA table. None of the five Chinese banks were able to break the 2% mark in ROA; XW Bank was the leader with an ROA of 1.61%. In Japan, Seven Bank was the only bank to achieve a better ratio than 1% for the second year in a row; this year, it recorded a ratio of 1.69%.

Rounding out the rest of the regional rankings, in western Europe OakNorth Bank in the UK tops the table with a 2.81%, whereas Schroders has dropped from first place last year to second place in the table, even though it improved its ratio to 2.56%. Mexico’s Banco Inbursa posted the highest ROA in the Latam and Caribbean region (3.48%), and Bank Pasargad in Iran topped the Middle Eastern table with an ROA of 4.35%, followed by compatriot Karafarin Bank (3.4%). 

Top five ROA Africa

Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 951 Banco de Fomento Angola Angola 5.94
2 547 Capitec Bank Holdings South Africa 4.79
3 913 Banco Angolano de Investimentos Angola 4.66
4 598 Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria 3.22
5 736 Equity Bank Kenya 3.07

Top five ROA Asia-Pacific (ex China and Japan)

Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 377 Halyk Bank Kazakhstan 3.82
2 829 Bank of South Pacific Papua New Guinea 3.53
3 346 Techcombank Vietnam 3.24
4 706 Bank Mega Indonesia 3.02
5 806 TISCO Bank Thailand 2.79

Top five ROA China

Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 837 XW Bank China 1.61
2 331 WeBank China 1.57
3 343 Bank of Taizhou China 1.34
4 11 China Merchants Bank China 1.31
5 364 Guangdong Nanhai Rural Commercial Bank China 1.22

Top five ROA Japan

Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 601 Seven Bank Japan 1.69
2 345 Aozora Bank Japan 0.49
3 80 Nomura Holdings Japan 0.34
4 12 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Japan 0.32
5 275 Iyo Bank Japan 0.31

Top five ROA Western Europe

Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 849 OakNorth Bank UK 2.81
2 374 Schroders UK 2.56
3 697 Arion Bank Iceland 2.18
4 744 Ringkjobing Landbobank Denmark 2.04
5 847 Banca Generali Italy 2
Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 434 Tinkoff Bank Russia 4.81
2 767 TBC Bank Georgia 3.3
3 843 Bank of Georgia Georgia 3.1
4 28 Sberbank Russia 3.03
5 173 Alfa Bank Russia 2.12

Top five ROA North America

Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 594 United National Corporation US 16.38
2 441 Beal Bank US 8.04
3 120 Discover Financial Services US 4.94
4 99 American Express Company US 4.22
5 989 Educational Services of America US 3.58

Top five ROA Latam and Caribbean

Regional Rank World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
1 347 Banco Inbursa Mexico 3.48
2 857 Banco Hipotecario del Uruguay (BHU) Uruguay 3.25
3 766 Banco Falabella Chile 3.09
4 957 Banco da Amazonia Brazil 3.04
5 700 Banco do Nordeste do Brasil Brazil 2.85

Top five ROA Middle East

World Rank Bank Country Return on assets (%)
320 Bank Pasargad Iran 4.35
887 Karafarin Bank Iran 3.4
103 Al Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia 2.36
213 Bank Mellat Iran 2.12
699 National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain United Arab Emirates 2.01

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Read more about:  Rankings & data , Top 1000 World Banks
Liz Lumley is deputy editor at The Banker. She is a global specialist commentator on global financial technology or ‘fintech’. She has spent over 20 years working in the financial technology space, most recently as director at VC Innovations and architect of the Fintech Talents Festival, managing director at Startupbootcamp FinTech London and an editor at financial services and technology newswire, Finextra. She was named Journalist of the Year for Technology and Digital Finance at State Street’s UK Press Awards for 2022.
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