ComBank ranked among world’s Top 1000 banks for 12th consecutive year

• First Sri Lankan bank in prestigious ranking and only bank to remain in elite group for 12 years in a row 

Managing Director and CEO Sanath Manatunge

The globally respected UK magazine ‘The Banker’ has once again included the Commercial Bank of Ceylon in its prestigious ‘Top 1000 World Banks’ ranking, making Commercial Bank the only Sri Lankan bank to be ranked among the elite global giants in banking for 12 consecutive years.

This ranking of the global who’s who of banking is based primarily on Tier I capital, a principal indicator to measure a bank’s financial health.

“These are the most adverse times in memory for banks in Sri Lanka, with the country’s unique issues compounding the continuing impacts of two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that context, our achievement of being ranked among the world’s top 1000 banks for the 12th successive year assumes even greater significance,” Commercial Bank Managing Director and CEO Sanath Manatunge said. “This reaffirms the remarkable consistency of the bank as well as its ability to maintain strong fundamentals in the face of daunting external challenges.”

Commenting on the 2022 ranking, The Banker said: “It has been another turbulent year for the global economy and the banking sector. Yet both have remained remarkably resilient, in no small part due to Government and central bank fiscal support programmes. Global aggregate tier one capital and assets have continued their onward march upwards. Global pre-tax profits have also bounced back from their slump last year. 

But the aggregate figures mask some significant regional and country-specific variations. China remains strong, the US has bounced back, for Europe challenges remain. The question now is how the world’s banks will fare as we enter a new period of economic turbulence, with interest rates rising and stimulus being unwound.”

The top five global banks heading The Banker’s list for 2022 are ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and JP Morgan Chase & Co. Commercial Bank of Ceylon is ranked at No. 930.

Compiled from a database of over 5,000 of the world’s biggest banks, The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking is considered the definitive guide to identifying which banks are the strongest in the world, based on more than 120 data points tracked in its database year on year. The magazine analyses results by region, country and benchmark bank to bank, and runs its best-performing bank methodology to help readers identify the banks’ strengths and weaknesses compared to its peers.

The Banker ranks banks from 1 to 1,000, and the regional breakdown is supported with editorial commentary, making the Top 1000 World Banks one of the most industry-recognised rankings available. The model refers to key ratios to score and rank banks, country by country, on their performance in eight categories: growth, operational efficiency, return on risk, soundness, profitability, asset quality, liquidity and leverage. Each bank’s performance across these categories is then used to generate an overall ‘best-performing bank’ score and ranking.

Ranked Sri Lanka’s Strongest Bank Brand for the third consecutive year in 2022 by Brand Finance, Commercial Bank of Ceylon ended 2021 with total assets of Rs. 1.983 trillion, gross income of Rs. 163.675 billion, net profit of Rs. 24.29 billion, a deposits base of Rs. 1.473 trillion and a loan book of Rs. 1.095 trillion.

In terms of capital adequacy ratios, the bank’s tier one CAR stood at 11.923% as at 31 December 2021, well above the revised minimum requirement of 9%, while its total capital ratio of 15.650% was also comfortably above the revised requirement of 13%.