South Africa’s biggest bank just lost out to its top rival – and a surprise contender

Standard Bank was ranked as the biggest bank in the country in 2025, widening its lead over FirstRand, which ranked second.

However, in terms of overall performance, South Africa’s biggest bank dropped to third in the local rankings, beaten out by FirstRand and a surprise fast-riser, Investec.

This is according to The Banker’s annual ranking of the world’s top 1000 banks, which included six local banks in 2025.

The Banker’s ‘biggest bank’ ranking focuses on Tier 1 Capital, which represents a bank’s core capital, seen as the most reliable and stable source of funds.

Tier 1 Capital is a key measure of a bank’s financial health and ability to withstand losses.

In a significant turnaround from the 2024 rankings (which focused on FY2023), all of South Africa’s banks showed solid growth in Tier 1 Capital in 2025 (focused on FY2024).

Across the top six banks listed, Tier 1 Capital grew by 10% to $43.5 billion in 2024, following a 2% decline the year before.

Standard Bank maintained its number one position, which is has held onto for the last decade, with FirstRand close behind in second—a position it has also long held.

In terms of T1 Capital, the two rivals hold a solid lead over the other banks, with only Absa (consistently ranked third) coming close to moving up on two occasions in the last 10 years.

The Banker noted that South Africa’s banks seemingly “brushed aside” persistent domestic challenges to demonstrate remarkable growth.

“Africa’s largest economy remained subdued in 2024, despite improvements in electricity supply and some easing of operating pressures,” it said.

“Even so, the country’s major banks bucked these conditions and continued on a steady growth path, with almost all lenders expanding their balance sheets and forging new growth opportunities.”

While Standard Bank maintained its position as the country’s number one, Capitec showed the largest growth in T1 Capital, up 20.7%.

This was one of the highest growth rates in Africa, The Banker noted.

Investec also showed remarkable growth with T1 Capital up 12.2% year-on-year. However, the real champion was FirstRand, which was the only other bank to show double-digit growth.

FirstRand’s T1 Capital grew by almost 15% year-on-year, notable because it comes off a much higher base. In nominal terms, the bank added over $1.4 billion in T1 Capital over the year.

Performance rankings for 2025

On top of the Tier 1 Capital indicator that informs the main ranking, The Banker has indicators to assess overall performance among banks.

These include more varied metrics like growth, profitability, operational efficiency and asset quality, among others.

Looking at performance, FirstRand emerged as the best-performing bank in the country overall, climbing over last year’s number one, Standard Bank.

Notably, Standard Bank dropped to third place in the 2025 review, with Investec’s standout performance pushing it into second place from fifth in 2024.

“Investec’s success stems from its leading positions in asset quality and return on risk, as well as second-place finishes in profitability and growth,” The Banker said.

FirstRand and Investec ranked first and second in terms of growth, profitability, and flipped on return on risk. Standard Bank still led in operational efficiency and liquidity.

It should be noted that The Banker’s performance rankings focus on the Top 5 biggest banks and thus did not include Capitec in the published review.

However, it did note that Capitec posted double-digit gains in pre-tax profitability of 37.6%, which was significant.

In terms of total asset growth, Capitec also leads the way with 19.8%—far higher than the 10% and 9% growth seen by Absa and Investec, and even higher than the 7.4% and 5.4% seen by FirstRand and Standard Bank.

Capitec was also noted for having the second highest return on assets in Africa, recording a 5.8% RoA, below only Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank at 6.9%

This is the top local bank in each indicator: