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European Banks Dominate Top Of World's Safest Banks' Rankings; Canadians Also Shine

Tom Burroughes

6 September 2013

Despite all the travails of the eurozone in recent years, European banks dominate the top part of a ranking of the world’s “safest banks”, with KfW of Germany in first place, while the highest-scoring North America bank is Canada’s TD Bank Group, while the highest-rated US bank is BNY Mellon, ranked at 31.

The figures come from Global Finance, the publication, in its 22nd annual ranking of the world’s 50 most robust banks. The data may be suggestive that some risks have moved eastwards, the publication said.

“Canadian banks are once again the best performing in North America, with six banks in the top 50. But now US institutions are catching up, also boasting six banks in the top 50. Banks from Singapore are the strongest in Asia, as are those from Chile in Latin America. Once again the safest banks in Europe have explicit guarantees from AAA-rated governments. Development banks represent a large contingent of the Top 50,” the publication said.

The ranking are as follows:

Rank    Group Name                                        Country

1          KfW                                                    Germany

2          Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten              Netherlands

3          Zürcher Kantonalbank                          Switzerland

4          Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank            Germany

5          L-Bank                                                Germany

6          Nederlandse Waterschapsbank            Netherlands

7          Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations     France

8          NRW.Bank                                         Germany

9          Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat  Luxembourg

10        Rabobank                                           Netherlands

11        TD Bank Group                                  Canada

12        DBS Bank                                          Singapore

13        Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp          Singapore

14        United Overseas Bank                        Singapore

15        Royal Bank of Canada                       Canada

16        National Australia Bank                      Australia

17        Commonwealth Bank of Australia       Australia

18        Westpac                                            Australia

19        ANZ Group                                       Australia

20        Nordea                                              Sweden

21        Bank of Nova Scotia                         Canada

22        Svenska Handelsbanken                    Sweden

23        Hang Seng Bank                               Hong Kong

24        Caisse centrale Desjardins                 Canada

25        HSBC                                               United Kingdom

26        Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe                  Germany

27        China Development Bank                   China

28        Bank of Montreal                               Canada

29        CIBC                                                 Canada

30        Agricultural Development Bank of China China

31        BNY Mellon                                       United States

32        Pohjola                                               Finland

33        CoBank                                             United States

34        AgriBank                                           United States

35        National Bank of Abu Dhabi              UAE

36        Korea Finance Corporation               South Korea

37        National Bank of Kuwait                   Kuwait

38        BancoEstado                                    Chile

39        AgFirst                                             United States

40        DZ Bank                                          Germany

41        U.S. Bancorp                                   United States

42        Industrial Bank of Korea                   South Korea

43        Korea Development Bank                South Korea

44        Qatar National Bank                        Qatar

45        Northern Trust                                 United States

46        Samba Financial Group                   Saudi Arabia

47        Bank of Taiwan                               Taiwan

48        Banco de Chile                                Chile

49        LGT Bank                                       Liechtenstein

50        Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ        Japan

Winners were selected through an evaluation of long-term credit ratings - from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch - and total assets of the 500 largest banks worldwide.