Africa still great for profits

The crown for profitability among the top 10 banks stays with #3 ranked FirstRand, with net profit up 10% to $1.6bn and return on investment (ROE) of 30%, compared with 20% for Standard Bank and 9% for Absa.

By comparison, global average ROE was 9%. Europe’s top ROE among big banks was 10.2% for ING Group in 2019, with German banks scoring less than 1%. US banks had an ROE range of 5%-10% for years after the introduction of Basel III capital requirements in 2009 and only recently broke towards 11.4%.

Africa is the world’s second most profitable banking region after Latin America, with ROE of 14.9%.