Global Finance magazine has named its 25th annual World’s Best Foreign Exchange Banks as part of the Gordon Platt Foreign Exchange Awards. Winners have been chosen in 87 countries, territories and districts, seven regions and multiple global categories.

These awards are named in honor of Gordon Platt, who was the driving force behind this program for many years.

An exclusive report on this program will be published in the January 2025 print and digital editions as well as online at GFMag.com. It will also include Global Finance’s annual FX Tech Awards.

Winning organizations will be honored at Global Finance’s Gordon Platt Foreign Exchange and Best SME Bank Awards Ceremony in London at the OXO2 at the landmark OXO Tower on February 25. 

Global Finance considered bank submissions, input from industry analysts, corporate executives and technology specialists. Criteria for choosing the Best Foreign Exchange Banks Award winners included, transaction volume, market share, scope of global coverage, customer service, competitive pricing and innovative technologies. 

“In a time of global economic uncertainty and rapid technological advancement, Global Finance’s Best Foreign Exchange Banks 2025 have demonstrated exceptional expertise, resilience, and innovation in the FX sector, consistently delivering value and reliability to their clients worldwide,” said Joseph Giarraputo, founder and editorial director of Global Finance. “Global Finance is proud to honor institutions that have excelled in a dynamic and challenging market environment.”

The complete list of Global Finance’s 2025 World’s Best Foreign Exchange Banks follows.

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For editorial information, please contact Andrea Fiano, editor, afiano@gfmag.com

About Global Finance

Global Finance, founded in 1987, has a circulation of 50,000 and readers in 188 countries, territories and districts. Global Finance’s audience includes senior corporate and financial officers responsible for making investment and strategic decisions at multinational companies and financial institutions. Its website — GFMag.com — offers analysis and articles that are the legacy of 38 years of experience in international financial markets. Global Finance is headquartered in New York, with offices around the world. Global Finance regularly selects the top performers among banks and other providers of financial services. These awards have become a trusted standard of excellence for the global financial community.

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To obtain rights to use Global Finance’s Award Logos, please contact Chris Giarraputo at: chris@gfmag.com.

The unauthorized use of Global Finance Logos is strictly prohibited.

Global Finance magazine has named its annual FX Tech Awards as part of the Gordon Platt Foreign Exchange Awards. This awards program honors companies that conceive fresh ideas and execute flawlessly in designing or deploying technology to improve foreign exchange.

These awards are named in honor of Gordon Platt, who was the driving force behind this program for many years.

An exclusive report on this program will be published in the January 2025 print and digital editions as well as online at GFMag.com. It will also include Global Finance’s 25th annual World’s Best Foreign Exchange Banks Awards.

Winning organizations will be honored at Global Finance’s Gordon Platt Foreign Exchange and Best SME Bank Awards Ceremony in London at the OXO2 at the landmark OXO Tower on February 25.

Global Finance’s regional experts considered bank and technology provider submissions and used their own research and knowledge to make shortlists in all regions and categories, before applying a bespoke algorithm, which includes market share, scope of global coverage, innovative features, competitive pricing and customer service to help choose the 2025 FX Tech Award winners.

“The winners of Global Finance’s 2025 FX Tech Awards offer cutting-edge solutions that empower clients with enhanced efficiency, security, and insights in a rapidly evolving financial landscape,” said Joseph Giarraputo, founder and editorial director of Global Finance. “These honorees have proven their commitment to pushing boundaries and advancing the field, and Global Finance is proud to recognize their achievements.”

The complete list of Global Finance’s 2025 FX Tech Awards follows.

###

For editorial information, please contact Andrea Fiano, editor, afiano@gfmag.com

About Global Finance

Global Finance, founded in 1987, has a circulation of 50,000 and readers in 188 countries, territories and districts. Global Finance’s audience includes senior corporate and financial officers responsible for making investment and strategic decisions at multinational companies and financial institutions. Its website — GFMag.com — offers analysis and articles that are the legacy of 38 years of experience in international financial markets. Global Finance is headquartered in New York, with offices around the world. Global Finance regularly selects the top performers among banks and other providers of financial services. These awards have become a trusted standard of excellence for the global financial community.

Logo Use Rights

To obtain rights to use Global Finance’s Award Logos, please contact Chris Giarraputo at: chris@gfmag.com.

The unauthorized use of Global Finance Logos is strictly prohibited.

When it comes to productivity, bigger is usually better. Small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) and micro, small and midsize enterprises (MSMEs) face a significant gap in value-added per worker compared to their larger peers.

Small-business productivity is half that of larger firms, the authors of a 2024 study by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) found. In emerging markets, the average is 29%, or a 71% gap. Kenya has the widest gap of the 16 emerging economies studied, at 94%, while Brazil has the narrowest, at 46%. In advanced economies, the average productivity gap is 40%, with Poland showing a 50% gap and the UK 16%.

These differences in value-added represent serious money left on the table, considering that MSMEs represent 90% of businesses globally: approximately half of the private-sector value-added and nearly two-thirds of business employment. According to MGI, the actual productivity ratio versus the top quartile level averages 5% and 10% of GDP for advanced and emerging economies, respectively.

“It ranges from 2% in Israel and the UK, to 10% in Japan among advanced economies, and from 3% in Brazil to 15% in Indonesia and Kenya among the emerging economies,” the authors reported. “On a per business worker basis, the amount is meaningful, ranging from about $3,000 in Israel to $12,900 in Japan among advanced economies and from $3,200 in Mexico to $8,800 in Indonesia among emerging economies (all in purchasing power parity terms).”

Lack of access to finance drives much, but not all, of the productivity gap. A World Bank study estimates that MSMEs face $5.2 trillion in unmet finance needs, or 50% more than the current lending market for such businesses.

When MSMEs seek help to improve productivity, they can turn to governments, business partners, and financial institutions, each providing unique offerings.

Governments can assist with public financing programs and fund core infrastructure development, but poor management and oversight have often blunted their success.

“For decades, governments in emerging market and developing economies have implemented programs to improve SME access to finance, often at a large budget cost. Yet, the SME financing gap remains large, especially in the least developed countries, and public budgets are tight,” Jean Pesme, global director of the World Bank’s Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice, noted in a 2024 research report. He suggests governments adopt “a more evidence-driven approach for the design and implementation of support to ensure it reaches the SMEs facing the most critical financial constraints.”

On the other hand, the productivity gap can be bridged in part by creating an economic fabric in which larger and smaller companies work together, argues Olivia White, a senior partner at McKinsey and director of MGI. “That, in fact, boosts productivity both of the smaller firms and the larger ones,” she says.

The MGI study cited DuPont leveraging a banking relationship to secure working capital credit for its MSME suppliers in rural areas, strengthening its supply chain and increasing sales.

But not all help needs to be financial. The MGI report cites automotive MSMEs, which have “gained operational proficiency through systematic interactions with productive original equipment manufacturers, and small software developers [that] have benefited from talent and capital ecosystems seeded by larger companies.”

Financial institutions have historically been a two-edged sword for MSMEs, but that is changing. Banks fund MSMEs, but since the latter have less capital and security than larger players, they face more rigid credit-scoring models that slow account opening and lending.

Banks have adopted innovative underwriting approaches, however, that incorporate additional alternative credit data to deliver affordable credit. MSMEs have responded positively to these new offerings. An Experian survey found that 70% of small businesses are willing to furnish such data if it means a better chance to obtain credit or reduce their borrowing rate. Banks are also investigating how they might act as matchmakers between their MSME and larger clients.

“Financial institutions often own the most important connective links between smaller and larger firms, the payment rails,” says MGI’s White. “One of the major ways that small and large firms interact is one does something for the other, and there needs to be a payment. By maintaining those rails, banks make it easier for the smaller and larger firms to interact.”

Nevertheless, it is early days for providing such services, she adds. More financial institutions are talking about being matchmakers, and many are experimenting with platform mechanisms that could facilitate client-to-client connections. But there is more development work to be done before these platforms can scale.

“I suspect it’s just going to depend a lot on the market and who sees that business opportunity,” says White.    —Robert Daly

With input from industry analysts, corporate executives, and technology experts, the editors of Global Finance selected the World’s Best SME Banks 2025 winners based on objective and subjective factors. The editors consulted entries submitted by the banks as well as the results of independent research. Entries were not required.

Judges considered performance from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. Global Finance then applied a proprietary algorithm to shorten the list of contenders and arrive at a numerical score of up to 100. The algorithm weights a range of criteria for relative importance, including knowledge of SME markets and their needs, breadth of products and services, market standing and innovation.

Once the judges narrowed the field, they applied the final criteria, including scope of global, regional, and local coverage, size and experience of staff, customer service, risk management, range of products and services, execution skills, and use of technology. In the case of a tie, the judges assign somewhat greater weight to local providers rather than global institutions. The panel also tends to favor private-sector banks over government-owned institutions. The winners are those banks and providers that best serve SMEs’ specialized needs.

Three times, it is a charm for Brazilian digital bank BTG Pactual, which took home the Best SME Bank Award for Brazil, Latin America, and the world. Having opened for business in 2019, it continues to increase its SME credit book, which grew 52% year-over-year to reach 22.1 billion reais (approximately $3.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2024. Nearly 40% of its lending portfolio—R$8.9 billion—was eligible for the bank’s Sustainable Financing Framework.

To support its agribusiness clients, BTG Pactual Empresas has introduced a variety of credit offerings, including real estate financing, invoice discounting, direct energy negotiations, and credit lines for clean energy and agribusiness supplies, equipment and facilities. And it has partnered with Latin American enterprise resource planning vendor Senior Sistemas to develop digital financial products and services for the latter’s systems.  

United Bank for Africa (UBA) is celebrating its 75th anniversary. Among its hallmarks is an unwavering commitment to driving the growth of small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) in Africa.

For UBA—boasting $20 billion in assets, $454.2 million in pretax profits in 2023, and a presence in 20 markets on the continent and four global centers—empowering SMEs means fueling Africa’s economic development.

Its home market of Nigeria is a poster case. With a portfolio of over a million SME clients and a loan book of $90 million, the bank has been instrumental in ensuring that SMEs remain the engine of growth.

Last year, the bank set aside $6 billion to lend to SMEs in partnership with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area secretariat, a program to be implemented over three years. The partnership augments the bank’s defining strength: its ability to support intra-African trade and investments critical for SMEs’ growth.

To enhance convenience for SMEs, UBA has signed up to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. The bank also ensures easy transaction processing through its UBA Afritrade and UBA Connect.

UBA has also become a pacesetter in financing women-owned businesses, owing to its strong belief that women should not be left behind in Africa’s socioeconomic development. —John Njiraini

In making this award, the Global Finance team notes DBS’ close focus on the specialized needs of SMEs—from the clarity of the CEO’s mission statement to the detailed structure and effectiveness of the bank’s SME products.

Outgoing DBS Group Chief Executive Piyush Gupta, who will step down in March 2025, has acknowledged that banks worldwide underserve SMEs. Under his guidance, DBS has worked to rectify this failure.

Together with Enterprise Singapore, DBS launched the ESG Ready Programme, an end-to-end program that aims to help local businesses—especially SMEs—become future-ready by building capability and capacity in sustainability. Participating companies can access a panel of sustainability specialists to guide them on their respective sustainability journeys.

“Banks have not thought enough about the battleground of tomorrow,” said Gupta in a 2015 interview with the National University of Singapore’s Business School. “But it is changing—in the last two years, digitization has now become the No. 1 agenda for most banking CEOs.”

Before the pandemic, DBS had relentlessly leveraged emerging technologies to help SMEs, especially micro and small enterprises, streamline services and manage credit risk. Digital payments, online banking, and blockchain technology emerged and became established during Gupta’s tenure, emphasizing SMEs.

The judges noticed that DBS had developed algorithmic models powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics to alert the bank to signs of potential trouble SME customers might face, substantially reducing insolvency risk.         —Simon Littlewood

In operation for over 80 years, Banreservas offers more than 315 physical service centers in the Dominican Republic—including traditional bank branches, mini branches, and mobile branches—along with roughly 1,900 ATMs. SMEs account for 16% of the bank’s business, or approximately $1.5 billion, giving Banreservas a 28% market share.

Banreservas offers its roughly 130,000 SME clients a broad array of financial services. Fomenta Pymes (“Promotes SMEs”) is a bank program providing small businesses access to financing products, credit cards, management services, payroll services, and other benefits. Special events include monthslong “loan fairs” through which SMEs shop for financing. In its 2024 iteration, the Banreservas loan-fair program disbursed 5,800 loans, totaling about $238.5 million. These were given to SMEs working in multiple sectors: tourism, construction, commerce, education, healthcare, social services, industry, agriculture, and livestock, among others.

Additional bank offerings include Programa Preserva, a workshop-based program that promotes economic security through saving. Programa Coopera, meanwhile, promotes the Dominican Republic’s socioeconomic development through financial support of businesses throughout the country, including those located in economically vulnerable areas.   —Laura Spinale

SMEs contribute 15% to Grupo Financiero Banorte’s loan portfolio. The financial institution works to better serve that market through an SME expansion plan instituted over the past year. As part of this program, Banorte has focused on increasing its SME offerings to include a full suite of tailored financial products and services. These include various loan types, business advisory services, tax advisory services, and strategic alliances with companies offering products and services of value to the SME market.

Credit is a significant part of the SME expansion plan; and the bank has instituted a new pricing structure, providing credit conditions more favorable to clients. SMEs qualify for these rates through an application process that provides a more holistic view of each SME applying. Available SME financing products include working capital loans, equipment financing, expansion loans, and lines of credit. One of these, Mujer PyME, is a credit facility targeted to women-led SMEs.

Additional advancements include the integration of biometric signatures in branches and a time-saver for account openings.          —LS

Located in Moldova, MAIB is this year’s regional winner for Central and Eastern Europe. As the country’s largest commercial bank and lender, MAIB has almost 37,000 active customers, an increase of about 13% year-over-year (YoY); and it captures approximately 43% of all newly registered companies in Moldova. MAIB has continued to consolidate its position within the SME sector—about 6,000 companies, primarily within IT, winemaking, and food industries—earning the bank an approximately 37% market share. Despite challenging economic conditions, various strategic efforts have helped the bank achieve record growth within its SME business unit

The bank leverages a customer-centric approach by using feedback to tailor products and services to SMEs. MAIB also emphasizes data-driven decisions, which have helped the bank maintain a profitable loan portfolio despite a declining demand for loans among SMEs, fluctuating grain prices resulting from regional conflicts and weather conditions, and falling interest rates.

To help attract SME customers, MAIB launched internet and mobile banking solutions. The bank created its Business Banking Customer Care Service, which has a dedicated line for SME support and specialists who can resolve customer issues. MAIB’s products and services include night and weekend payments, remote onboarding, factoring, and digital signatures on credit contracts.

The bank has partnered with over 150 companies that sell their products, such as agricultural machinery, photovoltaic panels, and cars, through loans that MAIB originates. The bank is also the first in Moldova to offer consulting services to its customers in accounting, business, and human resources.        —Andrea Murad

BTG Pactual Empresas’ SME lending portfolio reached 22.1 billion Brazilian reais (approximately $3.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, with its SME credit book growing 52% YoY. SME business now accounts for 12% of BTG Pactual’s total portfolio.

The bank attributes its SME growth in part to its digital capabilities. Its digital platform offers a complete, integrated portfolio of SME products and services—providing access to the bank’s credit, guarantees, insurance, investments, foreign exchange, and derivatives products. Associated services accessible via the platform include creation of invoices payable by QR code; online invoicing; instant electronic bank transfers; open banking; payments to suppliers, tax authorities, and utilities; budgeting and categorized spending services; digital receipts; and other capabilities. The platform offers more than 45 integrations, including Telegram and Google Workspace, along with an extensive range of productivity improvement products.

Speed is a crucial platform benefit. According to the bank, the platform enables the bank to disburse 95% of its loan funds in less than 10 minutes, 16 times faster than its competitors.

Agriculture is a big part of the Brazilian economy, and BTG Pactual Empresas offers services tailored to this sector. These include credit lines for agricultural products (fertilizers, pesticides, seeds); equipment financing; and infrastructure financing for the construction of silos, warehouses, and other facilities.

Activities addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues are also important to BTG Pactual. Of its loans to corporations and SMEs, 72% are subjected to social, environmental, and climate-risk analysis, in line with international best practices. R$8.9 billion of its lending portfolio aligns with the bank’s sustainable financing framework.          —LS

Founded in 1992 by the Bahraini government, Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) is part of that country’s efforts to diversify its economy into non-oil-producing sectors. SMEs are vital to those efforts. BDB strives to support entrepreneurs and SMEs through loans, financing, and advisory and mentorship programs and conferences tailored to the SME market.

The bank offers financial products for various types of SME businesses, including agriculture and fisheries, manufacturing, education, health-care, tourism, and transportation companies. It also provides financial services targeted to women. Over the last several years, the bank has invested in digital transformation. One result of that is tijara, BDB’s digital banking arm. This platform offers SMEs quick access to financing and efficient processing of business transactions, salary transfers, and other payment services.          —LS

In September, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) released its annual small-business poll. Results indicate that 51% of Canadians are considering starting a businesses. RBC wants to help them.

The bank operates in more than 30 countries and serves more than 17 million clients worldwide. As of 2023, it had about CA$3.6 trillion (approximately $2.6 trillion) in assets and over 91,000 employees. To improve the customer experience, RBC has invested heavily in digital banking and AI technologies.

RBC strives to support SMEs at every stage. The bank offers various financing and loan options for SMEs, including unsecured and operating lines of credit. It also administers Canada Small Business Financing Loans. Special programs target Black entrepreneurs.

A knowledge base on the bank’s website instructs would-be entrepreneurs at the very earliest business stages. Guides for starting a business, validating ideas, creating business plans, determining startup costs, choosing a business structure, and exploring business financing are available.

Beyond typical banking, RBC also offers several business services, mostly digitized. In the field of payment processing, it offers medical billing software for hospitals and clinics, point-of-service systems, and services enabling merchants to offer buy now, pay later options to their clients. Marketing services help SMEs explore consumer spending patterns, find clients, and embark on global trade. The bank offers a host of payroll and HR solutions. Operations services help entrepreneurs register and incorporate online, protect businesses against cyber threats, automate accounts payable, and perform other tasks.       —LS

Headquartered in Spain and with operations throughout Western Europe, Santander is named as the best bank for SMEs in Western Europe for the third year in a row. The bank has a wide range of targeted products and services to meet the needs of its customers, which include 114,000 SMEs that make up over 91% of corporate customers and over 95% of digital customers in Portugal.

Through its platform, Santander X, the bank has helped over 7,000 SMEs scale their businesses through training, advice, and other resources. The platform’s training enables SMEs to create a digital presence, expand domestically and internationally, and grow and maintain their workforce. Companies can also participate in competitions for cash prizes and other awards. In addition, this platform creates a global networking community for SMEs to connect with other businesses, providing discounted third-party resources and services.

Through various initiatives, Santander supports SMEs looking to expand abroad. Through the Santander Trade platform, SMEs can analyze different international markets, find international business partners, and support shipments overseas; while the Santander Trade Club helps SMEs find new distributors and suppliers. The bank’s “One Europe” strategy helps identify good practices in other countries—practices that can then be implemented domestically.

The bank develops products and services with the customer in mind, through engagement and solicitation of feedback. The result is personalized products across digital channels and enhanced user experiences.  —AM

China continues to search for antidotes to an ailing economy and the deterioration of its real estate market, and the banking sector continues to expand. GDP growth rose to 5.2% in 2023, up from 3% in 2022, but it is now forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fall to 4.8% in 2024 and further, to 4.5%, the following year. Meanwhile, China has contributed to balance sheet growth for each of the institutions that earned a place in our ranking of the biggest emerging market banks.

China claims the top 15 spots and 25 entries overall out of 50, with an average increase in assets of 7%; together, the country accounts for 90% of aggregate assets represented in our ranking.

India has posted high GDP growth in recent years, including 8.2% last year, according to the IMF, and the five Indian banks that earned a place in our top 50 have expanded strongly as well. In 2023—our year-end for these rankings—HDFC Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank, completed its merger with India’s largest housing finance company, like-named HDFC Ltd., boosting the bank’s assets by 50% in the country’s largest M&A deal to date. The remaining four Indian banks in our ranking averaged 7.5% balance sheet expansion during 2023.

While South Korea’s economy has rebounded this year, GDP slid to a three-year low of 1.4% in 2023, likely contributing to asset growth under 1% for all seven of the Korean banks represented in our ranking.

A broader picture emerges when looking at the 50 biggest emerging market banks without the dominant Chinese institutions. This view broadens the global scope of the top 20 alone, where China holds 19 spots. The expanded view adds three more Indian banks, for a total of eight, as well as representions from Africa, Latin America and more from the Middle East.

Global Finance’s 2024 ranking of the world’s 50 largest banks highlights institutions that have built powerful franchises in their respective markets, with extensive rosters of corporate, commercial, and retail clients. Their sheer size makes them industry leaders, and by leveraging thier diverse banking platforms they have grown their balance sheets.

Additionally, banks that earned a place in our 2024 ranking are highly influential in shaping the industry’s best practices, with the deep resources needed to attract top talent and develop innovative products and services.

Balance sheets for the top 50 expanded 4% in 2023, giving them aggregate assets of $92.8 trillion: a turnaround following a 2% decline for last year’s winners.

Chinese banks have consistently ranked as the world’s largest; this year, they hold the top four positions in our ranking, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on top at more than $6.2 trillion in assets. The top four banks averaged 11% asset growth and the 15 Chinese banks in the top 50 posted an average 6% year-over-year (YoY) increase.

In Japan, the three banks included in our ranking—Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho—all suffered an average 5% balance sheet contraction in 2023, which could be seen as a reflection of the country’s difficulty sustaining economic growth.

Euro area economies had similar challenges, with an average of less than 1% GDP growth in 2023, according to the IMF. The 14 eurozone banks in our top 50 averaged a 1% increase in assets. YoY changes include new entrants Banque Federative du Credit Mutuel at No. 47 and State Bank of India at No. 49, replacing Norinchukin Bank and CaixaBank.

The common thread running through this year’s country winners is the resilience they demonstrated during a period of higher interest rates linked to central bank efforts to tame rising inflation. Now, inflation is declining globally and central banks have begun to ease rates as their focus shifts to sustaining economic growth.

That means banks face a different set of challenges and opportunities. The pace of rate cuts is particularly important for those in developing and frontier economies, which stand to gain from an interest rate stance that favors growth following a prolonged period of elevated rates and sluggish GDP. During that stretch, sovereign rating downgrades, particularly in developing and frontier countries, were often the catalyst for follow-on ratings action on their respective banking systems.

Most of our 16 new country winners were in these developing markets. The overall picture was mixed; however, many jurisdictions saw positive developments, including rating upgrades that benefited their banks.

Negative credit trends and the withdrawal of bank ratings resulted in new winners in three Latin American markets. Following Ecuador’s sovereign debt downgrade last year, due to its deteriorating funding and liquidity profile, Fitch downgraded several Ecuadoran banks as well. However, they maintained Produbanco’s rating, confirming the latter as this year’s winner.

In Bolivia, S&P’s withdrew the remaining rating of incumbent Banco Mercantil Santa Cruz, allowing Banco de Credito to claim the top spot. Similarly in Venezuela, Fitch withdrew its rating of last year’s winner, Mercantil Banco Universal, leaving no rated candidates in that country.

Western Europe sees three new winners this year. Hellenic Bank takes the top spot in Cyprus, aided by a Fitch sovereign debt upgrade and improved bank credit fundamentals. With its leading position as the largest bank in Denmark, Danske Bank is a new winner following a two-notch upgrade by Moody’s in May reflecting improved governance controls in response to findings of deficiencies in its Estonian operations. Fitch cited this operational remediation as well as improved profitability and capitalization as the bases for its upgrade last fall. Islandsbanki is our new winner in Iceland as the bank picked up a new Moody’s rating in September 2023, edging out incumbent Arion banki this year.

Moody’s upgraded its ratings for five Azerbaijani banks, including the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), based in part on improving trends in the country’s economy, including efforts to diversify beyond the oil sector. While IBA’s score is equal to last year’s winner, Kapital Bank, IBA is larger, earning it the top spot for 2024.

Likewise, in Georgia, TBC Bank is slightly bigger than last year’s winner, Bank of Georgia, giving TBC the Safest Bank title. In Turkey, Fitch and Moody’s upgraded a range of banks following their upgrade of Turkey’s sovereign debt and reflecting increased confidence in the new macroeconomic policies the government implemented last year. These in turn benefit the banking sector, in part by improving access to foreign funding. Each agency acted on up to 17 banks. When the dust settled, Turkiye Garanti Bankasi emerged as this year’s winner. (Fitch upgraded 24 Turkish banks in September, but this rating action occurred after our ratings cutoff date of August 16, 2024.)

Indonesia’s largest bank, state-owned Bank Mandiri, benefits from its leading franchise, solid credit profile, and an improving operating environment. As it is a systemically important domestic bank, both Fitch and S&P cited enhanced levels of government support as the rationale for their upgrade of Mandiri, allowing it to take the top spot.

Under our methodology, a bank that is wholly owned by its parent is ineligible. In Cambodia, ACLEDA is the new winner, as the incumbent, Advanced Bank of Asia, is a 100% owned subsidiary of National Bank of Canada.

Similarly, First Iraq Islamic Bank emerges as a new winner after S&P initiated coverage and incumbent Trade Bank of Iraq was downgraded by Fitch. Citing an improved strategic mandate that will contribute to United Arab Emirates’ economic transformation and a high level of implied government support, S&P upgraded Emirates Development Bank, helping it unseat First Abu Dhabi Bank as the safest in the UAE.

Stanbic Bank Kenya unseated KCB Bank Kenya (KCB). Fitch and Moody’s each downgraded KCB following a lowering of Kenya’s sovereign rating. Stanbic Bank Kenya is not rated by Moody’s and dodged a Fitch downgrade due to its 75% ownership by South Africa’s Standard Bank Group. Securing a new bank rating frequently provides a critical boost in our scoring model: Our winner in Ivory Coast, new entrant Banque Internationale, benefited from Fitch initiating rating coverage that began last December.

To be eligible for inclusion in Global Finance’s Safest Banks By Country, institutions must rank among the world’s largest 1,000 banks by assets and carry at least one long-term foreign currency deposit or debt rating from one of the three major rating agencies. Wholly owned subsidiaries are ineligible. Criteria are broader than for our global rankings, which require a position among the largest 500 banks and rating by at least two agencies.