World’s Safest Banks 2024: Global 50

Global banks face competing priorities. While a shifting interest rate cycle forces them to compete in a new landscape, they must continue to focus on transforming their business models to maintain revenue growth and profitability.

This will be an especially big challenge for banks in regions and countries that are experiencing weak GDP growth. Significant geopolitical risks remain as well, as the Israel-Hamas war widens and the conflict in Ukraine and Russia drags on.

This year’s ranking of the World’s Safest Banks recognizes institutions that have demonstrated consistency and success in their operations during a period of uncertainty while broadening and enhancing their banking services.

Prolonged high interest rates aimed at combatting inflation have given way to easing in many economies, as moderating inflation encourages central bankers to focus on maintaining economic growth. For G20 countries, overall inflation is forecast to decline from 6.1% in 2023 to 5.4% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Core inflation—excluding food and energy—is projected to fall from 4.2% in 2023 to 2.7% in 2024 and 2.1% in 2025. The inflation trend is approaching central bank targets and is expected to be in line with them by next year.

As countries and regions aimed for an economic soft landing after the pandemic, many avoided a severe downturn. The result is global GDP growth forecast at 3.2% for 2024 and 2025, up slightly from 3.1% in 2023, according to the OECD. While some major economies experienced sluggish growth as central banks tightened, notably the eurozone, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan, these jurisdictions face a more promising outlook as 2025 GDP forecasts improve.

For global banks, the prospect is cloudier. Many of them benefited during the high interest rate period, their profitability boosted by higher levels of net interest income thanks to favorable interest rate margins on their loan portfolios. Maintaining those margins may be a challenge, however, depending on how quickly loans reprice at lower rates and how competition for customer deposits responds.

Many developed countries have instituted new resolution frameworks aimed at enhancing banks’ capital positions, contributing to rating upgrades and, in turn, movements in our rankings.

Such was the case this year in Australia, whose major banks made the biggest moves in our rankings. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ, National Australia Bank, and Westpac each rose 13 spots year-over-year and now place among the 25 safest banks. This follows upgrades by Moody’s and Fitch during the first half of 2024, reflecting implementation of a formal resolution-planning framework that also included an increase in loss-absorbing capital buffers.

These changes are designed to ensure stability in the Australian financial system, as the four largest institutions collectively represent over 70% of the banking system’s assets.

As their Australian counterparts moved up, Industrial Bank of Korea, DNB Bank, Bank of Taiwan, and Banque Pictet were each pushed down four places. While Emirates Development Bank has a comparatively small balance sheet relative to its peers, it enters our ranking this year at No. 30 and now ranks among the top 500 banks by asset size with two agency ratings. Under our methodology, in the event two banks have an identical score, asset size is the tiebreaker. This is evident in the case of No. 18, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise; and No. 19, SFIL, which swapped positions this year.

Global Finance’s rankings cover the world’s largest 500 banks by asset size and are calculated based on long-term foreign currency ratings issued by Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor’s, and Moody’s Investors Service. Our methodology requires a rating from at least two of these agencies. We source the largest 500 banks with at least two agency ratings from a universe of approximately 1,000 banks, as not all banks hold two agency ratings.

Where possible, ratings on holding companies rather than operating companies are used, and banks that are wholly owned by other banks are omitted. Within each rank set, banks are organized according to asset size based on data for the most recent annual reporting period provided by Fitch Solutions and Moody’s. Ratings are reproduced with permission from the three rating agencies, with all rights reserved. A ranking is not a recommendation to purchase, sell, or hold a security, and does not comment on market price or suitability for a particular investor. All ratings in the tables were valid as of August 16, 2024.