Equity Ranked Among The World’s 1,000 Biggest Banks

Equity Bank is among the world’s 1,000 biggest banks, the latest ranking shows. The Kenyan lender has been ranked position 39 globally on return on assets, position 71 on return on capital, and position 149 on soundness (Capital Assets to Assets ratio), in the Top 1,000 World Banks 2021 by British publication The Banker Magazine.

Overall, Equity was ranked 22nd in Africa and 761st globally based on its Tier 1 capital base of $1,096 million. This evaluation is derived after analysing banks through eight categories: growth, profitability, operational efficiency, asset quality, and return on risk, liquidity, soundness, and leverage.

Equity Group Managing Director and CEO Dr James Mwangi commented that the ranking is an indication that Equity remains robust despite the challenging operating environment.

“These global rankings are truly an affirmation befitting the financial strength and professionalism of the Bank, as well as the measures we took in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We strengthened our capital buffers by retaining profits and withholding dividend payouts, took long-term loan facilities that strengthened our liquidity buffers, supported host communities and our clients to mitigate the impact of the crisis on them by waiving fees and rescheduling their loans to match loan repayments to new cashflow patterns, Mwangi said.

Meanwhile, the Group, which operates in six countries, today reported a 79 per cent rise in profits after tax to $240.72 million in its Q3 results. The asset base went up by 27 per cent to $10.6 trillion and net loans are up 23 per cent to $5 billion compared to the same period last year. Deposits rose by 27 per cent to $7.82 billion.

During the release of the results, Equity Group chief commercial officer Polycarp Igathe said, “Our Strategy is socio-economic oriented. We create solutions that are relevant to the evolving needs of the economy and our solutions are salient to our consumers”.

The Group is listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Uganda Securities Exchange, and Rwanda Stock Exchange.