Zenith, First Bank, GTBank, 4 others make top global 1000 banks

Nigeria’s top nine banks that featured in the Banker’s top global 1000 banks 2012 have a combined tier one capital of $11.699 billion as against the $11.332 billion they had in last year’s top 1000 banks. This showed a slight improvement in the tier one capital of the Nigerian banks.
However, the combined tier one capital of the nine banks is this time around slightly above the $9.842 billion of Standard Group of South Africa, the biggest bank in Africa and the 112th in the world. Standard Group’s tier one capital dropped from last year’s figure of $12.6 billion to this year’s $9.8 billion. This fact is contained in the 2012 edition of The Banker magazine top 1000 global banks, a publication of Financial Times of London.

Bank of America which occupies the first position in the global ranking has a capital base of $163.626 billion. It is followed closely by JPMorgan Chase with a capital of $142.450 billion. The third position is occupied by HSBC, a British bank with a capital base of $133.179 billion. China has three banks in the top ten positions while Japan has just one.
The Banker magazine’s endorsement has become an instrument that central banks and bankers seek after as a marketing tool. The low level of capitalization of Nigerian banks when compared to international standard is a challenge to regulators who are at the moment busy fragmenting the industry.
The Banker  in its benchmarking of the top 1000 global bank said that Zenith Bank PLC had, as at 2011 financial year, a total tier one capital of $2.398 billion as against the $2.405 billion of last year. This makes Zenith Bank the biggest bank in Nigeria, the 7th in Africa and the 322nd in the world. It is followed by the first generation bank, First Bank, with a total of $2.262 billion in 2011 as against its last year’s figure of $2.221 billion shareholders’ stake in the bank known as tier one capital. First Bank occupies the 2nd position in the Nigerian banking sector, 8th in Africa and 338th in the globe.
The third highly capitalised bank in Nigeria by the standard of Bank of International Settlement (BIS) is GTBank with a tier one capital of $1.478 billion as against the $1.362 billion of 2010 financial year. By tier one capital ranking, it is Nigeria’s 3rd biggest, 11th in Africa and 455th in the world. Access Bank followed closely with a capital of $1.054 billion as against the $1.149 billion it had last year making it the 4th largest bank in Nigeria, 15th in Africa and 541st universally.

United Bank for Africa (UBA), one of the oldest banks in the country, as at the 2011 financial year end had $1.003 billion compared to the $1.037 billion capital in 2010 making it one of the internationally recognised strong banks in the country. It is by this classification, the 5th largest bank in Nigeria, 16th in Africa and 563rd in the world. Fidelity is next with $867 million as against the $904 million tier one capital the previous year, making it the 6th biggest bank in Nigeria, 17th in Africa and 618th in the world. First City Monument Bank followed closely with $683 million compared to the $854 million capital base it had a year before. It thus becomes the 7th largest bank, 22nd in Africa and 710th in the world. Skye Bank has $665 million compared to $695 million it had previously to feature as the 721st top banks in the world, 24th in Africa and 8th in Nigeria.

VANGUARD