World's safest banks

According to New York-based Global Finance's latest rankings of the world's top 50 safest banks, Germany's KfW Bankengruppe is at the first place, followed by France's Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC) and Netherlands' Bank Nederlands Gemeenten (BNG). The "World's 50 Safest Banks" are selected annually through a comparison of long-term credit ratings and total assets of the 500 largest banks around the world. This time, the 18th annual ranking compares the 500 largest banks around the world. Credit ratings from Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch were used for this compilation. The magazine also published a mid-year update for the first time in March this year, due to the global financial crisis. All the major banks of Canada earned a spot on the list. Among them the Royal Bank of Canada earned the highest safety score, taking 10th place among the international banks. The only major Canadian bank not present in the list was the National Bank of Canada.

Lloyds Banking Group (now 43% owned by the government) and the Royal Bank of Scotland dropped out of the list and the only UK bank to maintain a rating in the top 50 is HSBC at number 18. The Nationwide Building Society joined the list at number 46. It was Lloyds' decision to merge with the HBOS that led to its catastrophic fall from an esteemed spot as one of the safest banks in the world. In 2008, before the deal, Lloyds was the sixth-safest bank worldwide.

National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the largest bank in the state of Kuwait, is the only Arab financial institution to be ranked twice among the world's top 50 safest banks. NBK moved up six places to 38th rank, surpassing the likes of JP Morgan, UBS, Soceiete Generale and Credit Suisse. The bank reported strong performance in the first half of 2009 as net profits came in at $439 million (KD126 million) and consolidated assets reached $42.2 billion as of June 30, 2009. In the Asian region, all three Singaporean banks consecutively made it to the list with DBS Bank - Singapore's largest lender- being the world's 24th safest bank. All the three banks have moved up in their rankings and have reported better-than-expected results in the latest earnings reporting.

The top-ranked US bank is the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, which came in at 32nd spot. In all, five banks from the US made the list. Astonishingly, no US bank appeared among the top 10. Wells Fargo and Co, which was at the ninth place in 2008, is at the 42nd place this time.

According to the magazine, after two tumultuous years that saw many of the world's most respected banks drop out of the top 50 safest banks list, the dust appears to be settling. Those banks that kept an iron grip on their risk exposure before the financial crisis blew up have consistently topped the table and maintain their standing among the top echelon in this year's ranking. At the same time, the big name banks that lost their safest bank ranking during the credit crunch are still absent from the list as they struggle to rebuild their credit standing. Also, as pointed out by the publisher, "More than ever customers all around the world are viewing long-term creditworthiness as the key feature of the banks with which they do business."