SA BANKS TOP RANK – LAFFERTY’S GLOBAL BANK QUALITY SURVEY

Publication Date: 06/07/2017

Sa Banks Top Rankings In Lafferty’s Global Bank Quality Benchmarking Survey

The Banking Association South Africa welcomes the news that South African banks have been ranked as the best in the world by respected international banking consultancy Lafferty Group.

Five of South Africa’s major banks topped the rankings in Lafferty’s Global Bank Quality Benchmarking Survey, which was released recently.

The survey looked at 100 banks in 32 countries, including some of the biggest names in banking. For the second year running, South Africa’s Capitec Bank topped the rankings. This year, Capitec is the only bank in the world with a five-star rating, while Absa, FirstRand, Standard Bank and Nedbank each earned four stars.

Only seven banks worldwide earned a four-star rating, placing South Africa’s banking industry firmly on top of the league for the soundness of our institutions.

The Lafferty ratings evaluate banks for long-term sustainability, management, strategy and their level of service in the corporate and retail banking fields.

The dominant performance of South African banking in the survey flies in the face of recent downgrades of the country’s banks by international ratings agencies.

“We’re proud of these accolades, which confirm the quality and sustainability of the South African banking system.” said BASA MD Cas Coovadia. “South Africa has a well-regulated banking system with around eight separate laws that regulate us. South African banks are well capitalised and the banks recognised represent the majority of South Africa’s banking assets. We have strong banking institutions and it’s good to have this recognised.”

The recognition by Lafferty reaffirms our view that once policy certainty returns to the political environment, our financial system will inspire an immediate boost in confidence and a rapid return to healthy growth.

It was accepted that the downgrades of South African banks’ credit ratings by Fitch, Moody’s and S&P are almost a formality after the earlier sovereign ratings downgrades, due to the government debt securities held as part of our liquid assets requirement.

However, the true standing of our country’s banking system is reflected by an independent, major consultancy rating South Africa’s banks as the best in the world.

Lafferty Bank Quality Benchmarking is a unique research and intelligence service that continuously rates banks worldwide for their quality.

“During the unfortunate events of the past ten years, the failures of a few banks gave the industry a bad reputation,” says the Lafferty website. “Yet there are many excellent banks around the world — and the vast majority are not global giants. Size does not make a good bank, quality does!”