China's big banks top APAC region by asset value

Data and analysis provider SNL Financial yesterday released rankings, by asset value in USD, of the largest 50 Asia-Pacific banks. The data shows that Chinese banks represent more than one-third of the 50 largest banks by total assets in the Asia-Pacific region.

On SNL's numbers, the top four Asia-Pacific banks are all based in China, now the fourth ranked bank, Bank of China, has pushed Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial down into fifth spot.

By way of comparison, Australia's Big Four banks dropped in ranking, as did several of the Japanese majors - all largely as a result of weaker local currencies against the USD.

NAB is now number 14 on the list, down a spot from the previous year, displaced by China Merchants Bank. CBA is down to number 17 from 16. ANZ sits on number 19, down by two spots and Westpac has been pushed down to number 21 from its previous ranking of 18.

All Big Four banks showed ratios of non-performing loans to total loans well below most of their regional peers (ranging from Westpac, at 0.3 per cent, up to NAB's 0.79 per cent).

Macquarie Group came in at number 46, with a creditable return on average assets ratio of 0.94 per cent, in line with ANZ and Westpac and well ahead of NAB (0.61 per cent) but short of CBA (1.13 per cent).

All top three banks in Singapore made the list, as did four from Taiwan, two each from Hong Kong and India, and one from Malaysia.

The largest Indian lender, State Bank of India, had the highest nonperforming loans ratio of 5.04 per cent, as of 31 December 2014.