{"id":830582,"date":"2025-07-08T15:21:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T13:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=830582"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:21:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T13:21:48","slug":"the-south-african-bank-that-was-just-named-the-best-performing-bank-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/830582\/the-south-african-bank-that-was-just-named-the-best-performing-bank-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African bank that was just named the best-performing bank in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Investec has been named the best-performing bank in the UK and has shot up the rankings to beat Standard Bank back home in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to The Banker’s latest rankings, which analysed the performance of the world’s top 1,000 banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Banker’s main rankings are based on a bank’s Tier 1 Capital, the group also does a more detailed analysis of overall performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This review includes more varied metrics like growth, profitability, operational efficiency and asset quality, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Banker noted that 2024 was a good year for dual-listed banks, with the top three performing UK lenders listed in more than one country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investec retained its crown as the best-performing bank in the UK, boosted by a high return on assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bank is listed in Johannesburg and London and posted a 1.23% return on its $39 billion in assets. It also has a high capital-to-assets ratio and leverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investec was founded in 1974 in Johannesburg by Larry Nestadt, Errol Grolman, and brothers Ian and Bernard Kantor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It expanded into the UK in 1992 with the acquisition of Allied Bank. Following a series of takeovers, the bank became one of the most prominent players in both South Africa and the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the latest rankings, Investec was named the best bank across three pillars: profitability, soundness and leverage. It also featured in the top three across a host of other metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having total assets of $3 trillion, HSBC was in second place and recorded the largest Tier 1 capital of $144 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, HSBC came eighth among its local peers for growth, measuring annual percentage increases in assets, loans, deposits, and operating income. Investec came third in this area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standard Chartered, chaired by former Absa CEO Maria Ramos, came in third place. NatWest and former Absa parent company Barclays came in fourth and fifth, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Banker noted that UK banks had been successful for a few years. Despite a sensitive macro market environment, lenders were more protected from falling interest rates than their European and US peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said this was due to their structural hedges, which swap interest rate risk for a fixed margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regulations introduced in 2008, such as ringfencing, have given the sector a far larger capital buffer against potential turbulence.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
Performance Indicator<\/strong><\/td>Top Bank<\/strong><\/td>Second<\/strong><\/td>Third<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Growth<\/td>Skipton Building Society<\/td>Yorkshire Building Society<\/td>Investec<\/td><\/tr>
Profitability<\/td>Investec<\/td>HSBC<\/td>Natwest<\/td><\/tr>
Operational Efficiency<\/td>HSBC<\/td>Natwest<\/td>Investec<\/td><\/tr>
Asset Quality<\/td>Coventry Building Society <\/td>Skipton Building Society<\/td>Yorkshire Building Society<\/td><\/tr>
Return on Risk<\/td>HSBC<\/td>Standard Chartered<\/td>Barclays<\/td><\/tr>
Liquidity<\/td>HSBC<\/td>Absa<\/td>FirstRand<\/td><\/tr>
Soundness<\/td>Investec<\/td>Nationwide Building Society<\/td>Coventry Building Society <\/td><\/tr>
Leverage<\/td>Investec<\/td>Skipton Building Society<\/td>Nationwide Building Society<\/td><\/tr>
Overall<\/strong><\/td>Investec<\/strong><\/td>HSBC<\/strong><\/td>Standard Chartered<\/strong><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: The Banker <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Climbing the ranks in South Africa <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being named the best overall performer in the UK, Investec saw a remarkable climb in the South African rankings, moving from fifth position in 2024 to second place in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FirstRand was ranked the best-performing bank in South Africa overall, taking over from Standard Bank, which was ranked number one last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Investec’s second place performance pushed the former champion\u2014and South Africa’s biggest bank by Tier 1 Capital\u2014into third position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInvestec\u2019s success stems from its leading positions in asset quality and return on risk, as well as second-place finishes in profitability and growth,\u201d The Banker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FirstRand and Investec were ranked first and second in growth, profitability, and return on risk, while Standard Bank was the leader in operational efficiency and liquidity.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
Performance Indicator<\/strong><\/td>Top Bank<\/strong><\/td>Second<\/strong><\/td>Third<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Growth<\/td>FirstRand<\/td>Investec<\/td>Absa<\/td><\/tr>
Profitability<\/td>FirstRand<\/td>Investec<\/td>Standard Bank<\/td><\/tr>
Operational Efficiency<\/td>Standard Bank<\/td>Absa<\/td>Investec<\/td><\/tr>
Asset Quality<\/td>Investec<\/td>Nedbank<\/td>FirstRand<\/td><\/tr>
Return on Risk<\/td>Investec<\/td>FirstRand<\/td>Nedbank<\/td><\/tr>
Liquidity<\/td>Standard Bank<\/td>Absa<\/td>FirstRand<\/td><\/tr>
Soundness<\/td>FirstRand<\/td>Standard Bank<\/td>Investec<\/td><\/tr>
Leverage<\/td>FirstRand<\/td>Absa<\/td>Standard Bank<\/td><\/tr>
Overall<\/strong><\/td>FirstRand<\/strong><\/td>Investec<\/strong><\/td>Standard Bank<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investec has retained its crown as the best-performing bank in the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":812760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[29,4088,5368,1498,22687,23042,1799,499,4716],"class_list":["post-830582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa","tag-firstrand","tag-hsbc","tag-investec","tag-lloyds-2","tag-natwest","tag-nedbank","tag-standard-bank","tag-standard-chartered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830736,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830582\/revisions\/830736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}