World’s 50 Safest Banks 2013

Global Finance Names the World’s 50 Safest Banks 2013

New York, August 26, 2013 - Bank ratings are not yet showing the impact of either the slowdown in emerging economies or the more sustained recovery in developed countries. It is within this context that Global Finance announces it’s 22nd Annual Ranking of the World’s 50 Safest Banks .

Some banking market instability seems to be moving from the West to certain countries in the East, and companies are keeping a close eye on the solidity and reliability of their counterparties worldwide.

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 size threshold for banks is higher this year vs. 2012, with some strong local and global banks not qualifying for the list owing to their asset size, not their ratings.

Long-term ratings are still the most valuable tool for assessing a bank’s reliability, especially when used in a comparative way.

With the Top 20 banks unchanged as of an April 2013 update to the 2012 rankings, the Global Finance World’s 50 Safest Banks list shows that most of the top echelon of banks are truly worthy of the distinction of being named World’s Safest Bank.

“In Global Finance ’s Safest Banks ranking, the number of emerging markets banks in the top 50 is slowly growing. The number of triple-A banks has not changed and it is pretty limited, as many countries have lost their top sovereign rating and no new ones have reached that level yet,” says Global Finance publisher Joseph D. Giarraputo. “This ranking offers companies an objective tool for evaluating the world’s banks—both globally and by region,” Giarraputo notes. “Those institutions that top our ranking of the Safest Banks continue to show strength in trying times.”

Global Finance ’s annual ranking of World’s 50 Safest Banks has been a recognized and trusted standard of creditworthiness for the entire financial world for more than 20 years. 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.

The full results of this exclusive survey will be published in the October issue of Global Finance . The banks ranked 1-10 will be presented awards at a special ceremony to be held during the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC in October.

The following institutions qualified for inclusion in the list but did not make the ranking owing to their total assets: Wells Fargo, Standard Chartered, Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel, SEB, DnB, Swedbank, State Street, National Bank of Canada, Shizuoka Bank, National Commercial Bank, Al Rajhi Bank, Suncorp Metway, Banco Santander Chile, Riyad Bank.

Ratings current as of July 30, 2013