SAFETY FIRST - SAFEST BANKS IN CHINA

Chinese banks display a wide variety of strength and size.

Global Finance’s ranking of the Safest 10 Chinese Banks shows the wide variety in strength and size that characterizes the Chinese banking system.

The three safest Chinese banks each have ratings of AA- and one of A+. When combined with their large asset size, those ratings place the three banks in the mid-rank of Global Finance’s Safest 50 global banks list. The ratings/asset size combination also puts the three banks in positions two, three and four in the Safest Emerging Markets ranking.

RThe next five safest Chinese banks have ratings roughly equivalent to three A’s—far below the standard required for inclusion in the Global Safest 50 but sufficient to secure places in the Safest Emerging Markets Bank list.

China Merchants Bank and China CITIC Bank have ratings in the BBB range, reflecting the rating agencies’ opinions on their weaker inherent financial strength and the agencies’ marginally lower confidence that the Chinese government (rated AA- by Moody’s and S&P and A+ by Fitch) would step in to support the banks if they were to encounter difficulties.

This ranking of the safest 10 Chinese banks shows the wide disparity in asset sizes between the country’s leading banks, although all are large when compared with other emerging markets banks.

All 10 of the Safest Banks also feature in the rankings of the Biggest 50 Emerging Markets Banks. The smallest of the Safest 10—Export-Import Bank of China, with assets of $309 billion—is the 21st-biggest emerging markets bank. The largest, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, is the biggest in the world.

Several of China’s largest and best-known banks, such as China Minsheng Bank and China Everbright Bank, continue to hold ratings far below the levels required to feature in the ranking of safest emerging markets banks.

• Source for ratings: Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service
• Source for Reporting Assets: Fitch Solutions
• Ratings current as of August 14, 2014

For More Information, Watch Our Selection Methodology Video

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