Largest banks by country
Methodology
The degree of concentration in the banking sector continues to differ across countries, ranging from highly-consolidated markets in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, through intermediate cases like the UK and Switzerland, to more dispersed market shares in Germany and the United States – where the number of banks has nevertheless fallen by 40% since 1979. Despite this drive for size there have so far been relatively few major international bank mergers in Europe, though Belgian and Swiss firms have traditionally been active in cross-border and cross-industry transactions.
A number of these deals last year took place in Scandinavia, where highlights included the acquisition by Nordea (49) of both Christiana Bank and Unidanmark in November 2000. Internet initiatives by SEB (96) in Denmark and Germany followed its integration last January of BfG Bank, Germany’s fifth largest private bank.
There are now 19 banks with an equity market capitalization in excess of $40 billion. 10 of those are European, of which six are presently among the 10 largest banks in the world by market cap.
Some 21 groups now have shareholders equity in excess of $20 billion, compared with 14 last year. Seven banks are at least 50% bigger in shareholder equity terms than in the previous financial year. Another 23 groups have grown by at least 20% and another seven have lost 14% or more of their market value since mid-November.
A number of US banks – Fifth Third Bancorp, US Bancorp, Wells Fargo, Mellon Financial – are ranked substantially higher by shareholders’ equity than by market value. The market capitalization of US Bancorp has more than doubled since November following its acquisition of FirstStar Corp in February 2001. Banco Santander and BNP Paribas have market valuation positions lower than their equity rankings.
In this year’s tables Bank of New York has the highest return on year-end equity (122.2%), and the seventh highest profit growth (332.4%) of the largest 250 groups. Prize for highest profit growth goes to Deutsche Postbank (4,649.9%) while the shareholders’ equity of Commonwealth Bank of Australia rose in US dollar terms by 133% in 1999-2000.
Some 25 bank groups left the ranks of the world’s biggest 250, 13 of these because of mergers which put them back in the rankings under new or slightly changed names. 16 Japanese banks rose 12 places or more in this year’s rankings, as did nine US banks, five of which went up by more than 25 places.
The 2001 Bank Atlas was compiled by Moody’s Investors Service from commercial banks’ annual reports and financial statements for 2000 and 1999.
Where possible, figures are presented in consolidated form. Banks owned by other financial institutions are not listed separately. Subsidiaries and branches are not shown either.
These tables can also be found on Euromoney’s website at www.euromoney.com.
Criteria for inclusion:
G10 countries: minimum shareholder equity $1 billion (maximum 50 banks per country)
OECD countries outside G10: minimum shareholder equity $300 million
Other countries: minimum shareholder equity $200 million, except where information is only available on a small number of emerging markets banks.
Notes:
Germany: Genußscheine (participation certificates) are excluded.Turkey: international accounting standards are shown where available. For those which are inflation adjusted a constant 2000 exchange rate has been used.
Where data was not available in time for publication for 2000 or 1999 the banks have been excluded from the ranking.
Definitions:
Shareholder equity: the sum of issued common stock, capital surplus/premium, statutory reserve, legal reserve, revaluation reserve, contingency reserves (including EU “fund for general banking risk”), retained earnings, net profit for the year and minority interest. Where consolidated data are used, shareholder equity includes group equity attributable to minorities.
Total assets: as reported in financial statements.
Net income: as reported in financial statements before appropriation.
Return on equity, period-end: net income divided by equity at fiscal year end.
Moody’s ratings: Ratings on May 15, 2001 on long- and short-term deposits, and financial strength respectively. Where there is no deposit rating on the group, the rating (marked with an asterisk) refers to the major bank within the group.
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