In 2021, the total Tier 1 capital of the top 10 lenders in western Europe reached $910.89bn — down just over 4% from $952.99bn the previous year. Only Barclays and Crédit Mutuel saw their Tier 1 capital rise year on year, up from $77.38bn to $81.50bn and from $69.38bn to $69.59bn, respectively. BNP Paribas saw the biggest fall in dollar terms, down from $121.98bn to $113.93bn.
HSBC sits comfortably at the top of the Tier 1 capital ranking for western Europe, with a capital position of $156.29bn, down 2.4% from the year previous. Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas and Banco Santander maintain second, third and fourth spots, respectively. Barclays, helped by a 5.3% increase in its Tier 1 capital, overtakes Group BPCE to take fifth spot, with the latter moving to sixth. Barclays has also moved up three places in the Top 1000 World Banks ranking to 24th. Crédit Mutuel takes seventh spot in the regional table, up from ninth, with Société Générale up from 10th to eighth. UniCredit moves down from seventh to ninth, with Deutsche Bank rounding off the top 10 ranking, moving up one place since last year. Intesa Sanpaolo drops out of the top 10, after recording a 15.9% decrease in Tier 1.
Meanwhile, the total Tier 1 capital of the 10 largest lenders in central and eastern Europe (CEE) has reached $156.194bn in 2021, up 5.6% year-on-year. Every bank in the top 10 ranking saw their capital rise, apart from the three Polish banks — PKO Bank Polski, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego and Bank Pekao.
Sberbank, the region’s largest lender by Tier 1 capital, saw the biggest rise in dollar terms, increasing from $65.92bn to $72.85bn. Compatriots Promsvyazbank and Tinkoff Bank enter the top 10 CEE ranking, with 32.3% and 56.0% increase in Tier 1 capital.
Sweden’s Nordax Bank, Italy’s Mediocredito Centrale and the Netherlands’s Aegon Bank are the new European entrants to the Top 1000 World Banks ranking, with the banks sitting in 716th, 822nd and 860th, respectively.
Scandinavian banks feature prominently in the highest movers table for Europe, with Swedish pair Nordax Bank and Klarna Bank, along with Norway’s SpareBank1 Sorost-Norge, taking the top three spots. Nordax Bank has posted a 204.3% increase in its Tier 1 capital.
Meanwhile, Belgium’s Crelan leads the top five banks in Europe for return on capital, with Italy’s Banca Generali and Mediolanum taking second and third spot, and Spain’s Bankinter and Russia’s Tinkoff Bank rounding off the top five ranking in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Western Europe top 10 banks ($m)
Country rank | World rank | Bank | Country | Tier 1 |
1 | 9 | HSBC Holdings | UK | 156,292 |
2 | 14 | Crédit Agricole | France | 122,215 |
3 | 15 | BNP Paribas | France | 113,926 |
4 | 20 | Banco Santander | Spain | 93,695 |
5 | 24 | Barclays | UK | 81,504 |
6 | 26 | Groupe BPCE | France | 79,277 |
7 | 29 | Crédit Mutuel | France | 69,594 |
8 | 32 | Société Générale | France | 65,803 |
9 | 33 | UniCredit | Italy | 65,659 |
10 | 34 | Deutsche Bank | Germany | 62,926 |
CEE top 10 banks ($m)
Country rank | World rank | Bank | Country | Tier 1 |
1 | 28 | Sberbank | Russia | 72,851 |
2 | 82 | VTB Bank | Russia | 24,745 |
3 | 163 | Gazprombank | Russia | 10,970 |
4 | 173 | Alfa Bank | Russia | 10,370 |
5 | 179 | PKO Bank Polski | Poland | 9,489 |
6 | 185 | OTP Bank | Hungary | 8,986 |
7 | 255 | Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego | Poland | 5,834 |
8 | 266 | Bank Pekao | Poland | 5,589 |
9 | 327 | Promsvyazbank | Russia | 4,390 |
10 | 434 | Tinkoff Bank | Russia | 2,971 |
Europe highest movers
Country rank | World rank | Bank | Country | Tier 1 % ch. | Tier 1 $M |
1 | 716 | Nordax Bank | Sweden | 204.32 | 1,259 |
2 | 517 | Klarna Bank | Sweden | 163.11 | 2,148 |
3 | 777 | SpareBank 1 Sørøst-Norge | Norway | 71.78 | 1,054 |
4 | 434 | Tinkoff Bank | Russia | 55.99 | 2,971 |
5 | 767 | TBC Bank | Georgia | 49.91 | 1,090 |
6 | 843 | Bank of Georgia | Georgia | 43.14 | 868 |
7 | 646 | Arbejdernes Landsbank | Denmark | 40.59 | 1,513 |
8 | 60 | CaixaBank | Spain | 35.49 | 37,866 |
9 | 327 | Promsvyazbank | Russia | 32.26 | 4,390 |
10 | 106 | Nationwide Building Society | UK | 30.11 | 18,423 |
Europe top five ROC
Country rank | World rank | Bank | Country | Return on capital (%) |
1 | 595 | Crelan | Belgium | 43.19 |
2 | 847 | Banca Generali | Italy | 42.57 |
3 | 466 | Mediolanum | Italy | 30.2 |
4 | 284 | Bankinter | Spain | 28.95 |
5 | 434 | Tinkoff Bank | Russia | 28.72 |
Europe new entrants
World rank | Bank | Country | Tier 1 capital |
716 | Nordax Bank | Sweden | 1,259 |
822 | Mediocredito Centrale | Italy | 926 |
860 | Aegon Bank | Netherlands | 833 |