Zenith, GTBank and First Bank rank in top banks worldwide

The Banker Magazine, part of the Financial Times of London has recognized some Nigerian banks as being part of the top 1,000 banks in the World.

13 Nigerian banks made the list but standing out from their peers are Zenith Bank (ranked #293), GTBank (#415) and First Bank (#424).

Others are Access Bank, United Bank for Africa, Fidelity Bank, Ecobank, Skye Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria and Union Bank of Nigeria.

The banks were ranked based on their Tier 1 capital.

Tribune reports:

According to a release by the Country Representative Nigeria of the publication, Mr Kunle Ogedengbe, Access Bank was on number 532, United Bank for Africa ranked 539 and Fidelity 622. It revealed that profit on capital of three Nigerian banks that were not foreign-owned subsidiaries increased. These are First Bank that has its profit on capital increased by 25.32 per cent from 25.13 per cent, Access Bank from 21.19 per cent to 21.24 per cent and First City Monument Bank 15.77 per cent from 15.07 per cent.

Editor of the magazine, Mr Brain Caplen, noted that the 23 per cent increase in profit of global banks from 2007 “is a good news but the better news is that capital has also increased at a reasonable pace whereas assets have stayed flat.

“This means that returns on capital are only slightly improved but the hope is that this upturn is more sustainable than the last one,” he said.

Caplen disclosed that a large proportion of the profit is from China – about 32 per cent of the total which is more than the next three highest profit countries of USA, Japan and Canada combined.

Of the 25 top banks in Africa from the ranking, the highest of eight is from Nigeria, the largest economy in the continent while the United Bank for Africa is the only Nigerian bank in the top 10 highest movers in Africa.