World’s Safest Banks 2016: Europe Top 50

Germany’s fiscal probity shines in 10 of the top spots on our annual list.

The safest banks in Europe are located in Northern and Western Europe, with Germany contributing ten of the Top 50 banks and France nine.

The safest nine European banks are the same nine that lead our Global Safest Banks ranking. All are state-owned or enjoy official sponsorship. Germany’s KfW heads the list, followed by Zürcher Kantonalbank and Landwirtschafliche Rentenbank.

Among commercial banks—those that are less than 50%-owned by state interests—DZ tops the list, followed by Svenska Handelsbanken and Deutsche Apotheker und Ärztebank.

The enduring effects of the European banking crisis can be seen in the absence from the Safest 50 of any banks from Portugal, Spain and Italy, many of which had previously enjoyed AA ratings and were among the safest in the world. Banco Santander is closest southern European bank to qualifying for the Top 50, narrowly missing out with three A- ratings.

The United Kingdom contributes only five banks, but all of those are commercial banks that do not benefit from state-ownership or official sponsorship, as do many of the French and German banks. It is indicative of the changing fortunes of British banking that two of the British five are mutual building societies (one of which, Coventry Building Society has only $50.5 billion in assets), while Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Barclays fail to qualify. Lloyds comes close, however, with three A- ratings, the same as Santander.

Five Dutch banks rank high enough to reach the Top 50, including the three commercial banks that dominate Dutch banking—Rabobank, ING and ABN Amro. The two state-sponsored banks, BNG and Waterschapsbank, rank near the top of the list at 5th and 6th.

Scandinavia contributes 10 of the Safest 50 European banks, and half of these are Swedish.

Our ranking of the Safest European banks extends to Eastern Europe and to the Balkans (though not to the countries of the former Soviet Union). Three banks from these regions score highly enough for inclusion in the Top 50, two from the Czech Republic and one from Poland (Poland’s Bank Pekao narrowly misses out).

To be eligible for inclusion in the Safest European bank rankings, banks must have two or three ratings from the three major rating agencies and be among the 500 biggest banks in the world. (In practice, no European bank that was outside the biggest 500 scored highly enough to be included in the Safest 50.)

THE 50 SAFEST european BANKS
Rank	Group Name	Country	Ratings			Total Score	Assets $ mn	Statement Date
Rank	Group Name	Country	Fitch	Moody’s	S&P	Total Score	Assets $ mn	Statement Date
1	KfW	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AAA	30	547,603	12/31/15
2	Zürcher Kantonalbank	Switzerland	AAA	Aaa	AAA	30	155,640	12/31/15
3	Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AAA	30	101,571	12/31/15
4	L-Bank	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AAA	30	79,660	12/31/15
5	Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten	Netherlands	AA+	Aaa	AAA	29	162,777	12/31/15
6	Nederalndse Waterschapsbank	Netherlands	N/R	Aaa	AAA	29	91,720	6/30/15
7	NRW.BANK	Germany	AAA	Aa1	AA-	26	151,885	12/31/15
8	Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat	Luxembourg	N/R	Aa2	AA+	24.5	48,309	6/30/15
9	Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations	France	AA	Aa2	AA	24	169,672	12/31/15
10	DZ Bank	Germany	AA-	Aa1	AA-	23	444,574	12/31/15
11	Svenska Handelsbanken	Sweden	AA	Aa2	AA-	23	298,803	12/31/15
12	Banque Cantonale Vaudoise	Switzerland	N/R	Aa2	AA	23	43,373	12/31/15
13	Deutsche Apotheker und Ärztebank	Germany	AA-	Aa1	AA-	23	39,678	12/31/15
14	Société de Financement Local (SFIL)	France	AA-	Aa3	AA	22	91,108	12/31/15
15	Pictet & Cie	Switzerland	AA-	Aa2	N/R	21.5	34,519	12/31/14
16	Rabobank	Netherlands	AA-	Aa2	A+	21	729,856	12/31/15
17	Nordea	Sweden	AA-	Aa3	AA-	21	704,266	12/31/15
18	Swedbank	Sweden	AA-	Aa3	AA-	21	254,580	12/31/15
19	Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe (Sparkassen)	Germany	A+	Aa2	N/R	20	1,353,868	12/31/14
20	Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken	Sweden	AA-	Aa3	A+	20	295,702	12/31/15
21	DNB ASA	Norway	N/R	Aa2	A+	20	254,171	12/31/15
22	HSBC France	France	AA-	A1	AA-	20	183,406	12/31/15
23	OP Corporate Bank (formerly Pohjola)	Finland	N/R	Aa3	AA-	20	61,062	12/31/15
24	Münchener Hypothekenbank	Germany	AA-	Aa3	N/R	20	41,479	12/31/15
25	LGT Bank	Liechtenstein	N/R	Aa2	A+	20	30,889	12/31/15
26	BBBank	Germany	AA-	N/R	AA-	20	10,136	12/31/14
27	TeamBank Nuernberg	Germany	AA-	N/R	AA-	20	9,408	12/31/15
28	HSBC Holdings	United Kingdom	AA-	A1	A	18	2,409,656	12/31/15
29	UBS	Switzerland	A	Aa3	A+	18	950,767	12/31/15
30	Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel	France	A+	Aa3	A	18	499,200	12/31/15
31	BNP Paribas	France	A+	A1	A	17	2,171,141	12/31/15
32	ING	Netherlands	A+	A1	A	17	912,932	12/31/15
33	ABN AMRO Bank	Netherlands	A+	A1	A	17	424,950	12/31/15
34	BGL BNP Paribas	Luxembourg	A+	A1	A	17	47,049	12/31/15
35	Crédit Agricole	France	A	A1	A	16	1,849,602	12/31/15
36	Nationwide Building Society	United Kingdom	A	A1	A	16	297,337	4/4/16
37	Länsförsäkringar Bank	Sweden	NR	A1	A	15.5	29,572	12/31/15
38	Societe Generale	France	A	A2	A	15	1,452,794	12/31/15
39	Standard Chartered	United Kingdom	A+	A1	BBB+	15	639,792	12/31/15
40	Danske Bank	Denmark	A	A2	A	15	482,120	12/31/15
41	KBC	Belgium	A-	A1	A	15	236,936	12/31/15
42	Groupe BPCE	France	A	A2	A	14	1,270,044	12/31/15
43	Coventry Building Society	United Kingdom	A	A2	N/R	14	50,555	12/31/15
44	Komerční banka	Czech Republic	A-	A2	A	14	35,915	12/31/15
45	Schroders	United Kingdom	A+	A3	N/R	14	26,823	12/31/15
46	Sparebank 1 SR-Bank	Norway	A-	A1	N/R	14	21,801	12/31/15
47	Nykredit Realkredit	Denmark	A	Baa1	A	13	202,605	12/31/15
48	Česká spořitelna	Czech Republic	A-	A2	A-	13	38,655	12/31/15
49	La Banque Postale	France	A-	N/R	A	12.5	238,114	12/31/15
50	ING Bank Slaski	Poland	A	A3	N/R	12.5	27,913	12/31/15
Europe is defined to include Eastern European and Balkans but not FSU. Asset data from Fitch.