Equity Bank is among the top 1,000 best banks globally listed by the Financial Times Banker Magazine.
The lender was ranked at position 754 out of 1,000 global banks, jumping 90 spots from last year’s position 844.
Equity was also ranked position 62 on Capital Assets Ratio and Financial Soundness, which is an improvement of 13 spots, from last year.
The lender also ranked at position 20 overall on Return on Assets, and position 55 on Profit on Capital.
According to the publication, return on assets was at 3.35 per cent; profit on capital was at 23 per cent and capital assets ratio was 14.56 per cent.
Continentally, Equity was placed at position 22 of the best banks in Africa.
Despite the growth and development of its financial sector, Africa remains a minor player in global banking terms.
In 2019, the continent’s banking industry accounted for less than 1 per cent of global Tier 1 capital making it the smallest regional player, behind Latin America with just over 2 per cent.
Nonetheless, the performance in capital terms of the top five African countries – South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Kenya was noted as being impressive.
“We are humbled that despite being a regional bank operating in Africa, we have made it among the top 754 banks in the world,” said James Mwangi, Managing Director and CEO Equity Group.
Equity’s steady improvement in the global rankings is a result of a deliberate strategy to improve operational efficiencies, backed by an elaborate digitisation strategy.
In the first quarter of 2020, Equity’s profit before provisions was up by 10 per cent to Sh10billion from Sh9.1 billion the previous year.
The Group, however increased its loan loss provision tenfold to Sh3billion up from Sh300 million the previous year leading to a 14 per cent decline in net profit by 14 per cent from Sh6.2 billion to Sh5.3 billion for the same period last year.
