World’s Best Banks in Western Europe 2025

Building on a profitable and dynamic 2023, when high interest rates buoyed bank lending margins, most Western European banks had a strong 2024, ending the year with a spurt in net income and revenue growth. Many increased their focus on sustainable finance (with green bonds as a major growth area), diversified their revenue streams, and invested in new banking technology—modernizing existing apps and exploring new possibilities.

At the end of 2024, the European Central Bank (ECB) published its annual Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process, with the authors concluding that the banks of the euro area—into which most of this year’s winners fall—remained resilient in 2024. “On average, banks maintained solid capital and liquidity positions, well above regulatory requirements,” they conclude. “The aggregate Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio stood at 15.8% in mid-2024, which is a slight improvement compared with the previous year. The leverage ratio increased slightly to 5.8%. Higher interest rates continued to sustain banks’ profitability.”

In a few notes of warning, they add that “concerns around banks’ governance, risk management—including climate and nature-related risks—and operational resilience persist and require swift remediation due to the uncertain risk environment.”

Andorra | CREAND CREDIT ANDORRA

Returning for the fifth time in a row as the Best Bank in Andorra, Credit Andorra has fully integrated Vall Banc, the acquisition of which was completed three years ago. The bank is now widely known as Creand Credit Andorra. With over €51.7 billion under management, profit increased by over 60% to nearly €71.3 million in 2024.

Austria | UNICREDIT BANK AUSTRIA

Net profits for this year’s Austrian winner, UniCredit Bank Austria, were up 14.2% over 2024, reaching approximately €1.3 billion. This seals a very satisfactory year for the institution, whose total assets now stand at around €105.3 billion. In the year in which Bank Austria celebrated 20 years as part of the UniCredit group, the bank consolidated its leading position in corporate banking, wealth management, and private banking. With an extensive network of over 104 branches across Austria, it has become the national leader in mobile banking, with usage now at 63%, well above the market average of 55%. Already, 21% of Bank Austria customers see themselves as digital-only users, compared to the market average of 15%.

Belgium | BNP PARIBAS FORTIS

BNP Paribas Fortis has earned its award as the Best Bank in Belgium after an impressive and rewarding year. This continued into early 2025 when the bank released the latest version its Easy Banking App. It enables users to look at their financial activities in real time and load their activities with other banking groups (like ING, Belfius, or KBC) through the app. The bank worked with Swedish fintech company Tink to develop the app.

Cyprus | BANK OF CYPRUS

With assets of just under €26 billion, the Bank of Cyprus—the primary beneficiary of Cyprus’ 2012-14 financial crisis—had another great year, with preliminary results for 2024 suggesting a 4% increase in after-tax profits to a record €508 million. The Bank of Cyprus is a key financial actor on the island: The bank now has 38% of deposits and 43% of loans, while its digital sales platform Genius enables seamless connection of its customers and businesses with suppliers and other companies. In a strategic repositioning, the Bank of Cyprus—whose market capitalization is now €2.3 billion—has moved its listing from the London to the Athens Stock Exchange.

Denmark | DANSKE BANK

Danske Bank—our winner in Denmark—consolidated its lead over domestic rivals, reporting total assets of over 3.7 trillion Danish kroner (about $518 billion) by the end of 2024 with solid results, building on 2023’s recovery. For 2024, the bank reported net profits of 23.6 billion kroner, up 11.1%; and total income of 56.4 billion kroner, up 7.8%. ROE in 2024 was 13.4% against 2023’s 12.7%.

Finland | NORDEA

The Best Bank in Finland, Nordea, which has benefitted from the country’s membership in the European Single Market, further consolidated its dominance of the sector with total assets worth €623.4 billion, up €39 billion in 2023, and a nearly 62.7% market share (based on total assets). The bank’s 2024 operating profit was over €6.5 billion, up 2.5% year on year.

France | BNP PARIBAS

BNP Paribas won this year’s award as Best Bank in France, despite sluggish growth in its commercial and retail operations in 2024, reflecting the broader economic picture in France. However, the division rebounded in the final quarter, recording growth of 4.7%. A revival in investment banking helped the bank to lift its profits by more than 15% in the fourth quarter. The bank, France’s largest lender, said it would launch a new strategic plan to boost the profitability of its domestic business, increasing the profitability of commercial and personal banking in France to the level of the wider group. Growth at BNP is expected to be boosted by the integration of Axa Investment Managers, acquired from French insurer Axa last year in a €5.1 billion deal.

Germany | COMMERZBANK

For our German winner, Commerzbank, Germany’s thirdlargest bank, last year was big, with assets of €555 billion in 2024. Its net profits hit a record €2.7 billion, a rise of 20% over 2023 and an increase of more than 50% from 2022. The bank aims to increase its net result to €4.2 billion by 2028. With its upgraded “Momentum” strategy, Commerzbank has set significantly more-ambitious targets than before, focusing strongly on small businesses and on private customers and wealth management. The return on tangible equity (ROTE) is expected to improve to 15% by 2028. This means that the bank will earn significantly more than its cost of capital and be a well-established player among the successful European banks.

The bank entered 2025 fighting a hostile bid from our Italian winner, UniCredit. The latter received ECB approval in March to up its stake in the German bank to 29.9%. However, UniCredit has indicated it will probably wait until 2026 before announcing its future strategy.

Greece | EUROBANK

The winner as Best Bank in Greece, Eurobank, has earned the title after an impressive 2024. With a vast international presence in Bulgaria, the UK, Luxemburg, and Cyprus, Eurobank Holdings had assets of nearly €100 billion, as of September 2024. The bank reported net earnings of €1.45 billion in 2024, up 27% on 2023. In early 2025 it completed the purchase of an additional 37.5% of Hellenic Bank in Cyprus, bringing its total holding close to 100%. The entity is to be merged with Eurobank Cyprus to compete against Bank of Cyprus, the other main bank on the island.

Eurobank argues that its business success reflects its wide range of activities, including “egg” (enter, grow, go), a business startup plan aimed at small and midsize enterprises and now the second-largest such scheme in Eastern Europe. Another bank initiative is Trade Corridors, a “phygital” business network aimed at helping Greek businesses locate and do business with potential global partners.

Iceland| LANDSBANKINN

Iceland’s largest bank, Landsbankinn returns as the Best Bank in Iceland for a second consecutive year. Holding some 40% of the domestic retail market, profit in 2024 was 37.5 billion Icelandic krónur (about $271 million) after taxes, up from 33.2 billion krónur in 2023. ROE in 2024 was 12.1%, lending was up 10.8%, and customer deposits increased by 17.2%. The Smart Savings app saw customer usage rise by almost 40% last year.

Ireland | AIB

Allied Irish Bank (AIB) has earned the title of Best Bank in Ireland for the second year in a row. It delivered a strong 2024 performance with a profit after tax of €2.35 billion, a 26.7% ROTE, and total 2024 distributions to shareholders of €2.6 billion. Buoyed by a vibrant economy, new lending grew by 17% to €14.5 billion, while the customer base reached its highest level at 3.35 million.

Italy | UNICREDIT

Our winner in Italy, UniCredit had another impressive year, with full-year net profit up 2% to reach €9.7 billion. Net revenue grew 4% to €24.2 billion, up 4% fiscal year over fiscal year, driven by fees at €8.1 billion, up 8% on the year, reflecting strong client activity and broad product offering to the bank’s more than 15 million customers across Europe. The bank is firmly committed to sustainability and other environmental, social, and governance principles. UniCredit seeks to boost digitalization across the group. Fitch upgraded the bank to BBB+ in October 2024.

The record-breaking performance marked the 16th consecutive quarter of sustainable, profitable growth. This reflects the potential unlocked during the initial phase of the UniCredit Unlocked transformation plan. UniCredit became a unique pan-European model increasingly active in Central and Eastern Europe and in Germany. Diversified fees and high-quality net revenue growth, high organic capital generation, strong ROTE, and generous total distributions have all set the path for UniCredit to enter its next acceleration phase from 2025 to 2027. As 2025 got underway, UniCredit Italy is reported to have bought a stake in insurance giant Generali Group and to be separately trying to take over Milan lender Banco BPM, in which both groups also own a stake.

Liechtenstein | LGT

Liechtenstein’s LGT, the principality’s largest bank, owned wholly by the royal family, has had a good few years. It started 2024 with more than 58.1 billion Swiss francs (over $64 billion) in assets. To boost its asset management business in Austria, LGT is looking for acquisition opportunities in Switzerland and Germany.

Luxembourg | SPUERKEESS (BCEE)

Spuerkeess (BCEE) returns as the Best Bank in Luxembourg for the fourth consecutive year. Better known as Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat, state owned and established in 1856, BCEE has dominated banking in the duchy for decades and currently controls around 50% of the retail banking and mortgage market. BCEE successfully issued a €500 million 6NC5 senior preferred green bond on March 12, marking a significant milestone in its capital markets strategy. The bond, which was oversubscribed 3.6 times and issued under BCEE’s newly launched Green Bond Framework, will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Malta | HSBC

HSBC takes home the award for the Best Bank in Malta after a record 2023 in which pretax profits rose 141% to €133.9 million on the back of increased net interest margins and higher earnings from its insurance subsidiary. Last year, the bank posted another pretax profit increase, of 15% to €154.5 million, and ROE was slightly up at 17.5% against 17.1% in 2023. Customer deposits increased by €16.8 million to almost €6.2 billion as of December 31, 2024. Management attributes the increase in profits to growth across all revenue lines, mainly due to higher interest rates, increased customer activity, and higher insurance subsidiary results. HSBC Malta’s strong performance hasn’t gone unnoticed; takeover talks were in the air. However, government officials were said to be opposed, arguing that Malta needs more rather than less competition among its banks.

Monaco | CFM INDOSUEZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Monaco’s CFM Indosuez Wealth Management, owned mainly by Credit Agricole, has won the laurels as the Best Bank in Monaco. The principality’s leading commercial bank, serving two out of three businesses—unsurprisingly, given its history and location—puts wealth management center stage. However, it also launched its StartUp Connections last year, a digital platform offering simplified access to an international network of startups in Monaco, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

Netherlands | ING

Our Dutch winner, ING, with over 60,000 employees serving 40 million customers globally, is familiar to anyone who does business with or visits the Netherlands. Over 2024, the bank consolidated its position as market leader. Global assets reached approximately €1 trillion, but annual net profits for the year came in below market expectations at €6.4 billion. Income is expected to hold steady this year on the back of falling interest rates, according to CEO Steven van Rijswijk, who says the bank is looking for acquisitions this year to help boost overall performance.

Throughout 2024, the bank said it would increase focus on wholesale, personal, and private banking. In March 2025, ING announced that it had reached an agreement with Reggeborgh Groep on the acquisition of a 17.6% stake in Van Lanschot Kempen, a specialist wealth manager serving private, institutional, and investment banking clients, operating predominantly in the Netherlands and Belgium. With an existing 2.7% stake, ING will hold a 20.3% stake in Van Lanschot Kempen after the completion of the transaction.

ING has also reiterated its commitment to its climate goals, advising clients that it will either restrict or stop providing finance, on a case-by-case basis, to companies that fail to address their carbon footprint. This stands in sharp contrast to many other financial institutions that have loosened some climate targets.

Norway | DNB

Last year was a good year to be a banker in the Nordic region, with improvements in asset quality and overall performance driven by a broadly benign economic environment and market dominance for the key players. The Norwegian winner, DNB, had another solid year as the leading bank in Norway with a year-end market capitalization of 336 billion Norwegian kroner (about $29.7 billion), up from 328 billion kroner in 2023; and post-tax profits of 45.8 million kroner, up on 2023’s approximately 39.5 million kroner, a result reflecting Norway’s GDP growth of 2.1% last year against just 0.1% in 2023.

Portugal | BANCO SANTANDER TOTTA

The winner for Portugal, Banco Santander Totta, is the third-largest bank in the country by assets (€56 billion), with some 4.7 million customers. Its net profits for last year were up again, by 10.7% over 2023, to reach €990 million, an impressive reflection on the bank’s performance and Portugal’s ongoing economic recovery. The bank actively courts the youth market, offering work cafes, and is well ahead of competitors in its digital offerings. However, it has not forgotten seniors, launching a new health insurance product for them. Fitch gives Banco Santander Totta the Portuguese bank sector’s highest score, A.

Sweden | SWEDBANK

Swedbank, the country’s third-largest domestic bank, is the winner in Sweden on the back of solid results: After-tax profits for 2024 were up 2.2% to 34.1 billion kronor (about $3.1 billion), while total assets reached 3 trillion kronor, with 7.4 million private customers.

Switzerland | UBS

UBS returns for the fifth year in a row as the Best Bank in Switzerland and reflects another strong year—the complex takeover of Credit Suisse is now almost complete—in which it increased its local market share by 40% and became the world’s largest wealth management bank. The bank’s 2024 net profits were $5.1 billion, lower than the previous year but better than expected—an otherwise normal year but impacted by the ongoing Credit Suisse integration. UBS plans to buy back $1 billion of shares in the first half of 2025 and up to $2 billion in the second if there are no “material and immediate changes” to Swiss capital rules that the authorities are considering to require UBS to hold more capital.

UK | HSBC

On the back of impressive group results, HSBC wins the Best Bank in the UK award. The Group, which reports in dollars, posted a post-tax profit increase of $400 million over the previous year to $25 billion, and total group assets topped $3 trillion by the end of 2024. Last year saw several initiatives in the UK market. These included the launch of Flexipay, which lets consumers spread the cost of a large point-of-sale purchase at one of the bank’s merchant partners, whether or not the customer has an existing HSBC relationship; the relaunch of the bank’s fee-free Premier Account; and the debut of new benefits for its Premier World Elite credit card. HSBC UK also revealed its plans to double assets under management to £100 billion ($134 billion) by 2028.

So, it was another strong year for Western Europe’s leading banks. Most have positioned themselves well for 2025; although with rising geopolitical uncertainty, a possible tariff war and other negatives, 2025 looks to be very different from 2024. In its look ahead to 2025, Fitch in December noted that 80% of the region’s banks have a stable outlook, with just 4% on a negative outlook and 15% on a positive one. The rating agency also suggested that “business conditions for the banks will remain sound, resulting in another year of good performance” and maybe an increased prospect of consolidation.

The improving outlook is particularly pronounced in the southern countries, Greece, Portugal, and Spain, on the back of continued business growth. The Nordic region and the Benelux countries are facing a neutral outlook with continued strong profitability and resilient asset quality. Banks in Germany and Italy have a neutral outlook with “resilience amidst weak economic performance” (Germany) or “subdued credit demand” (Italy). By contrast, French banks face a deteriorating outlook amid “macro uncertainties and political risk.”

With the overall macro-outlook in early 2025 more uncertain than it has been in many years, it was perhaps unsurprising that the ECB announced in January that it would stress test some 96 eurozone banks over the year. The ECB’s priorities for the sector in 2025 include, among other things, strengthening bank resilience to macro-financial and geopolitical shocks, and ensuring banks address digital transformation and climate change in an efficient and meaningful way. In a fast-changing world, the healthiest West European banks—like banks everywhere else—will demonstrate genuine foresight and flexibility.