South Africa’s banks retained their position as the largest lenders in Africa in this year’s Top 1000. Standard Bank remains the biggest African bank, having increased its Tier 1 capital from $9.8bn in the 2012 ranking to $10.9bn 12 months later. FirstRand and Nedbank ranked second and third this year, respectively, occupying the same positions that they did inThe Banker’s Top 1000 in 2012.
But most of South Africa’s lenders, as was the case in the 2012 ranking, had a subdued year as far as Tier 1 and asset growth were concerned. The total Tier 1 capital of its top four lenders – Standard Bank, First-Rand, Absa (a subsidiary of the UK’s Barclays) and Nedbank – rose just 3.3% to $30.7bn. The two main exceptions in the country were African Bank and Capitec, two banks specialising in mass-market lending. They saw Tier 1 growth of 44% and 50%, respectively.
