By Yuri Pinchuk
The Banker, an authoritative banking journal, has presented the list of 500 largest banking brands in the world, which relies on business assessments on the following criteria: credits to individuals, insurance and private capital management. In 2014, Belarusian Belarusbank entered this list for the first time, ranked 480th. The British journal has assessed the value of Belarus’ largest bank as $159m.
Of course, Belarusbank still has a long way to go to catch up with the Russian banks. Russia’s most expensive brand, Sberbank, was assessed at having almost $11bn in assets, and was placed 17th in the rating. However, Belarusbank’s position seems quite good when compared to banks from neighbouring states. For example, there are no Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian banks in the list, while Ukraine is represented by only one — Oschadbank, with a rating of 492, and an assessed value of $150m. There are seven Polish banks in the rating, with two of these being placed lower than Belarusbank.
Valued at over $30bn, America’s, Wells Fargo, remains the leader of the world ranking for the second year in a row. In total, four American banks are in the top 10, China is represented by three banks and one bank from the UK, Spain and France.
Belarusbank is also a leader in our country in terms of assets. As of early 2014, the top five Belarusian commercial banks were as follows: Belarusbank, Belagroprombank, PBS-Sberbank, Belinvestbank and Bank BelVEB. These banks play a vital role in the financing of the economy, so it’s no surprise that, between them, these banking institutions earned over Br4 trillion of profit last year.
