{"id":866298,"date":"2026-07-14T14:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T12:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=866298"},"modified":"2026-07-14T14:48:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T12:48:42","slug":"capitec-and-standard-bank-just-made-a-huge-leap-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/866298\/capitec-and-standard-bank-just-made-a-huge-leap-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitec and Standard Bank just made a huge leap in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s biggest banks continue to dominate in Africa when it comes to Tier 1 Capital, with the country’s leader, Standard Bank, extending its lead significantly, and Capitec jumping ahead of Investec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to The Banker<\/strong><\/a>‘s annual ranking of the world’s top 1000 banks, which included six local banks in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Banker’s ‘biggest bank’ ranking focuses on Tier 1 Capital, which represents a bank’s core capital\u2014considered the most reliable and stable source of funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tier 1 Capital is a key measure of a bank’s financial health and ability to withstand losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a significant acceleration from the 2025 rankings (which focused on FY2024), all of South Africa’s banks continued to show solid growth in Tier 1 Capital in 2026 (focused on FY2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the top six banks listed, Tier 1 Capital grew by 17.6% to $51.1 billion in FY2025, following a significant 10.1% rise the year before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standard Bank maintained its number one position, which it has held onto for the last decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while it was once just ahead of frequent number two, FirstRand, the latest ranking shows the gap has widened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of T1 Capital, Standard Bank now holds a solid lead over FirsRand and other banks, with T1 Capital growing to $16.1 billion\u2014up a massive 24%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FirstRand also showed double-digit growth, with T1C up 13% to $12.5 billion. Absa (consistently ranked third) is now coming in closer, with its T1C at $10 billion (up 19%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Banker noted that South Africa’s banks punch above their weight on a global scale, but still lag behind other regions, accounting for less than 1% of T1C in the combined ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while none of the local banks is in the top 100, aggregate profits and T1C growth are far above the Top 1000 aggregate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finance publication noted that South Africa’s banks enjoyed a modest improvement in the country’s economic fortunes in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was amid falling interest rates and despite a 30% tariff on exports imposed by the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, while Standard Bank maintained its position as the country’s number one, Capitec was the only bank to move in the local ranking, climbing above Investec for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitec was also highlighted as having the largest Return on Assets in Africa at 6.4% and as the top performer among South African banks, scoring best in six of eight metrics tracked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SA #<\/strong><\/th>Global<\/strong><\/th>Bank<\/strong><\/th>2025 T1C<\/strong>
($m)<\/strong><\/th>		2026 T1C
($m)<\/th>		Change<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/td>145<\/td>Standard Bank<\/td>13,001<\/td>16,108<\/td>+23.9%<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>178<\/td>FirstRand<\/td>11,107<\/td>12,548<\/td>+13.0%<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>203<\/td>Absa<\/td>8,456<\/td>10,091<\/td>+19.3%<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>288<\/td>Nedbank<\/td>5,856<\/td>6,572<\/td>+12.2%<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>486<\/td>Capitec<\/td>2,463<\/td>2,956<\/td>+20.0%<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>499<\/td>Investec<\/td>2,582<\/td>2,833<\/td>+9.72%<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/td>Total<\/strong><\/td>43,465<\/td>51,108<\/td>+17.6%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: The Banker<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s biggest banks continue to dominate in Africa, with Standard Bank and Capitec making significant jumps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":812493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2077012502135635992","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[29,1798,4088,1498,1799,499,7283],"class_list":["post-866298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa","tag-capitec","tag-firstrand","tag-investec","tag-nedbank","tag-standard-bank","tag-the-banker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866298","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":866306,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866298\/revisions\/866306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}