Features : World's Safest Banks - Global Finance Magazine

The Worlds Safest Banks 2004

Global Finance selects the Worlds Safest Banks, the 50 institutions with the highest ratings from the leading international credit ratings agencies.

It is perhaps a sign of things to come that a giant French bank has snatched the top spot in Global Finances Safest Banks ranking, from Germanys venerable Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg. As the German landesbanks contemplate losing their government guarantees next year, they will be facing increasing challenges to their dominance of the safest banks listing. In fact, next year could see a significant shake-up at the top. The Netherlands Rabobank is only one upgrade away from re-establishing itself as the worlds safest banka distinction it held until last year, when Fitch nudged it down to a AA+ from its long-held triple-A rating.

In a world where business is becoming increasingly global, banking clients will be looking for reassurance that their banks can provide the security they are looking for. And while the total number of triple-A ratings among the top 50 has barely changed over the past year, the total assets they manage has grown markedly. With such enormous asset bases, there is little doubt that these banks can handle any shocks they might encounter.

As always, we have constructed our ranking based on size and credit quality. This year we began with a pool of 500 of the worlds largest banks by asset size, collated from Bureau van Dijks BankScope, a database of financial information covering 11,000 global banks. We then applied ratings from Fitch Ratings, Moodys Investors Service and Standard & Poors, with appropriate weightings. Where there was no published rating from any one agency, one was inferred, but with a penalty applied.

Where banks were rated equally by all three ratings agencies, or had equal inferred ratings, the largest of the banks was awarded the highest ranking.

Dan Keeler

How we measure the safety of banks

The chart on page 68 compares the ratings for the worlds 50 safest banks, based on long-term foreign currency ratings from Fitch Ratings, Moodys Investors Service and Standard & Poors. Holding companies have been rated rather than subsidiary banks, and government import-export finance institutions have been omitted. For each credit level, institutions with three top ratings are listed first, two top ratings second, and one top rating third. A single rating ranks higher than the absence of any rating (N/R). Within each rank set, banks are rated according to asset size. Ratings are reproduced with permission of the three ratings agencies, with all rights reserved. Bank asset sizes were supplied by Bureau van Dijks BankScope database. A rating is not a recommendation to purchase, sell or hold a security, and it does not comment on market price or suitability for a particular investor. Because Moodys uses different ratings from the other agencies, equivalents are shown in the table on the right.

How we measure the safety of banks
Fitch Ratings/ Standard & Poor’s	Moody’s
AAA	Aaa
AA+	Aa1
AA	Aa2
AA-	Aa3
A+	A1
A	A2
A-	A3
BBB+	Baa1
BBB	Baa2
BBB-	Baa3
BB+	Ba1
BB	Ba2
BB	Ba3
B/B+	B1
CCC	B2
NR	NR

The Worlds safest Banks 2004
RB	Name	Country	Fi	Mo	S&P;	TA $ billion
1	Caisse des Dpts et ConsignationGroupe Caisse des Dpts	France	AAA	Aaa	AAA	480.0
2	Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AAA	395.0
3=	Bayerische Landesbank	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AAA	380.0
3=	KfW Group	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AAA	380.0
5	Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten	Netherlands	AAA	Aaa	AAA	106.0
6	Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AAA	84.2
7	Rabobank Group	Netherlands	AA+	Aaa	AAA	509.4
8	Landesbank Hessen-Thueringen	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AA+	171.2
9	Nederlandse Waterschapsbank	Netherlands	N/R	Aaa	AAA	32.5
10	Oesterreichische Kontrollbank	Austria	N/R	Aaa	AAA	30.3
11	DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale	Germany	AAA	Aaa	AA	119.6
12	Zurich Cantonal Bank	Switzerland	N/R	N/R	AAA	62.0
13	Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale NORD/LB	Germany	AAA	Aa1	N/R	230.1
14	Lloyds TSB Bank	United Kingdom	AA+	Aaa	AA	363.6
15	Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz	Germany	AAA	Aa1	AA	79.7
16	UBS	Switzerland	AA+	Aa2	AA+	1,120.6
17	Barclays Bank	United Kingdom	AA+	Aa1	AA	776.7
18	NRW Bank	Germany	AAA	N/R	AA	356.8
19	WestLB	Germany	AAA	Aa2	AA	321.6
20	Landesbank Sachsen	Germany	AAA	Aa2	AA	70.1
21	Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat Luxembourg	Luxembourg	N/R	Aa1	AA+	45.9
22	Dexia	Belgium	AA+	N/R	N/R	441.4
23	Banco Popular Espanol	Spain	AA	Aa1	AA	66.2
24	Citigroup	United States	AA+	N/R	AA-	1,264.0
25	BNP Paribas	France	AA	Aa2	AA	988.9
26	HSH Nordbank	Germany	AAA	Aa3	AA-	213.6
27	Crdit Agricole	France	AA	Aa2	AA-	992.7
28	Danske Bank	Denmark	AA-	Aa1	AA-	306.3
29	Royal Bank of Canada	Canada	AA	Aa2	AA-	300.9
30	Groupe Caisse d’Epargne	France	AA	N/R	N/R	480.8
31	Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria	Spain	AA-	Aa2	AA-	356.9
32	UniCredito Italiano	Italy	AA-	Aa2	AA-	300.7
33	National Australia Bank	Australia	AA	Aa3	AA-	257.0
34	Commonwealth Bank of Australia	Australia	AA	Aa3	AA-	168.1
35	Svenska Handelsbanken	Sweden	AA-	Aa1	A+	167.7
36	Royal Bank of Scotland Group	United Kingdom	AA	N/R	AA-	806.2
37	HBOS	United Kingdom	AA	N/R	AA-	728.9
38	Wells Fargo	United States	AA	N/R	AA-	387.8
39	State Street	United States	AA	N/R	AA-	87.5
40	Deutsche Bank	Germany	AA-	Aa3	AA-	1,014.8
41	Socit Gnrale	France	AA-	Aa3	AA-	681.2
42	Depfa Bank	Ireland	AA-	Aa3	AA-	219.7
43	Bank of Montreal	Canada	AA-	Aa3	AA-	190.1
44	Westpac Banking Corporation	Australia	AA-	Aa3	AA-	148.0
45	Caja de Ahorros y Pensiones de Barcelona	Spain	AA-	Aa2	A+	146.1
46	Australia and New Zealand Banking Group	Australia	AA-	Aa3	AA-	124.1
47	Caja Madrid-Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Madrid	Spain	AA-	Aa2	A+	96.2
48	United Overseas Bank	Singapore	AA-	Aa2	A+	66.7
49	ABN AMRO	Netherlands	AA-	N/R	AA-	707.8
50	Fortis	Belgium	AA-	N/R	AA-	653.5