Al Rajhi Bank and National Bank of Egypt have emerged as the strongest bank in the Middle East and Africa respectively. Across the region, the average ROA of banks fell to 0.9% in 2020 from 1.6% in the year earlier, while their capitalisation remained robust

The top ten remained largely unchanged in the ranking of the largest banks in Asia Pacific, while HSBC slipped two places to rank 13th due to the stronger growth of Chinese banks and the appreciation of the RMB against the US dollar.

Saudi Arabia-based Al Rajhi Bank retained its position as the largest and strongest Islamic bank in the world, with total assets amounting to $125 billion in 2020. The aggregate total assets of the 100 largest Islamic banks in the world grew by 12% in 2020, while the aggregate net profit of these banks contracted by 15%.

The financial performance of the Hong Kong and Singapore banking sectors remained relatively strong. The COVID-related relief measures eased the short-term pressure on banks’ asset quality and capital adequacy.

Bank of China (Hong Kong), the strongest bank by balance sheet in Asia Pacific in 2020, has the highest capital adequacy ratio (CAR) among banks with total assets of over $100 billion in Asia Pacific at the end of 2020. The bank is well capitalised, despite the decline in its CAR from 22.9% in 2019 to 22.1% in 2020.