/ 21 August 2001

STANDARD LEADS AFRICAN BANKS

STANDARD Bank has been ranked 146th in The Banker magazine’s annual Top 1 000 World Bank rating a jump of 13 from last year’s ranking. In addition, Standard Bank was also rated the top sub-Saharan bank in the survey, which ranks the world’s commercial banks. The rankings are based on Tier One capital as defined by Basel’s Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The object of the survey is to show the banks’ soundness in relation to the Basel requirement of a minimum Tier One capital on risk-weighted assets of four percent and a minimum ratio of capital to risk-weighted assets of eight percent. Stanbic’s Tier One capital increased from US 2_,275-million to US 2,326-million. South African banks continue to dominate African banking. Absa was ranked second in sub-Saharan Africa and Absa third. – Sapa