National Australia Bank (NAB) has ranked first as the safest bank in Australasia and number 16 in the world, the Rankings of the World's 50 Safest Banks report from Global Finance has found.
The US-based magazine assembled the list based on a comparison of long-term credit ratings from Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, as well as the total assets of the 500 largest banks in the world.
Based on global rankings, NAB was followed by Commonwealth Bank (17), Westpac (18) and ANZ Group (19) as the only other Australian banks to be named in the list.
Although the list was led by European banks FfW (Germany) and the Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (Netherlands), emerging market institutions generally held their ratings and moved up the list as some developed market banks moved down.
The biggest climber on the list was Chilean institution Banco del Estado de Chile, up six positions from 42 to 36, Global Finance stated.
"Counter-party risk is of prime importance to global CFOs (chief financial officers) and financial executives as economic uncertainty continues to trouble global markets," Global Finance publisher Joseph D. Giarraputo said.
"The institutions that top our ranking of the safest banks are those that have shown their strength in times of turbulence."
