It is a testimony to the scale of South Africa’s giant banks that the country contributes only six to the Top 100 Banks listing, but these dominate the regional ranking, as they have for many years. Standard Bank remains top. A drop in Tier 1 capital at Nedbank has seen Absa taking its place as second in the regional ranking.
After the big four, the next two South African banks are Investec (Tier 1 capital of $2.2bn, climbing to 12th in Africa) and Capitec Bank (Tier 1 at $1.6bn, enough to see it slide from 19th to 21st in Africa).
The banks have robust capital and operations and are well diversified with significant operations across Africa and the world. They are used to the turbulent South African business and political environment. They have been expanding across Africa to counter the stagnant growth at home and they remain “very profitable despite the tough macroeconomic conditions,” according to S&P Global Ratings.
They are expanding retail operations but are particularly strong when it comes to helping businesses in sub-Saharan African countries to reach international investors from the Middle East, Europe, America, Australia and Asia and for providing trade and finance for infrastructure.
Mauritius also has very strong domestic banks and is a leading centre for South African and international banks reaching into Africa. It contributes five banks to the regional ranking, headed by Mauritius Commercial Bank (7th in the region and 24th of Africa’s Top Banks). Other top Mauritian banks are SBM Bank (Mauritius), Investec Bank (Mauritius), Standard Chartered Bank (Mauritius) and HSBC Bank (Mauritius)
Angola contributes four banks to the top 100 ranking. Banco de Fomento Angola is 39th in the Top Banks, with Tier 1 capital of $681m at the latest results in December 2022, up from $482m a year earlier. Banco Angolano de Investimentos is 50th and Banco BIC is 53rd.
The savings and credit bank Banco de Poupança e Crédito (BCP) had a bad year to December 2022 with losses of $238m on Tier 1 capital of $413m, and ranks 62nd in Africa.
In August 2024, BCP announced it had sold 80% of its bad debt portfolio to Recredit SAO, a state-owned agency set up in 2016 which lists on its website that managing the systemic risk posed by BCP is a key aim.
Mozambique has three banks in the Top 100: Standard Bank (Mozambique) which is 57th in Africa with Tier 1 capital of $445m; Millenium BIM (58th), which is majority owned by Portugal’s Millennium BCP digital bank; and Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (74th), majority owned by Portugal’s state-owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos. BCI is the most profitable with $128m of net profit and ROE of 36%.
From Namibia, only Bank Windhoek, with Tier 1 capital of $302m, remains in the top ranking at 83rd.