In the lead up to the UK's general election on May 7, The Banker has compiled a ranking of the UK's top five banks by Tier 1 capital. The ranking shows that HSBC is the largest bank in the country by this measure. Indeed, the bank dominates the UK banking landscape as not only the largest lender, with some $152.74bn of core capital, but also the most profitable, recording $18.68bn pre-tax profit in 2014.
The next bank in the ranking is Barclays, which holds little more than half the amount of HSBC’s Tier 1 capital – £81.22bn – followed by the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. Standard Chartered comes fifth, although it boasts the second position in terms of both pre-tax profits and returns on capital and assets.