No Irish names in world’s ‘top 50 safest banks’

Irish banks don't make the grade in the latest Global Finance survey of the "World's 50 Safest Banks", although Dutch bank Rabobank, which has an operation in Ireland, came in 10th position.

German bank KFW tops the list, followed by another Dutch bank, Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten. According to the authors of the report, the "safest banks in Europe have explicit guarantees from AAA-rated governments".

Canadian banks are once again the best performing in North America, with six banks in the top 50, although US institutions are catching up, with six banks in the top 50.

In Asia, banks from Singapore are again the strongest in Asia, as are those from Chile in Latin America.

The size threshold for banks is higher this year, with some strong local and global banks not qualifying for the list owing to their asset size, not their ratings.

Global Finance publisher Joseph D Giarraputo saidthat the survey shows that the number of emerging markets banks in the top 50 is slowly growing, and the number of triple-A banks has not changed and it is pretty limited, “as many countries have lost their top sovereign rating and no new ones have reached that level yet”.