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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
KfW headquarters.

The safest banks are those that have shown their strength in times of turbulence.

Counterparty risk is of prime importance to global CFOs and financial executive as economic uncertainty continues to trouble global markets," says Global Finance publisher Joseph D. Giarraputo.

The ranking was created by Global Finance magazine through an evaluation of long-term credit ratings - from Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings -and total assets of the 500 largest banks worldwide.

KfW (Rank 1)
Germany

KfW banking group is a German government-owned development bank, based in Frankfurt.

Its name originally comes from Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, meaning Reconstruction Credit Institute. It was formed in 1948 after World War II as part of the Marshall Plan.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (Rank 2)
The Netherlands

The Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (BNG) is a Dutch bank and local government funding agency, specialising in providing finance for publicly owned organisations.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
Zurcher Kantonalbank.

Zurcher Kantonalbank (Rank 3)
Switzerland

 Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB) is the largest cantonal bank and fourth largest bank in Switzerland.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank.

Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank (Rank 4)
Germany

Rentenbank, based in Frankfurt, is Germany's development agency for agribusiness.

Rentenbank provides refinancing to banks within the European Union involved in financing agriculture, related sectors thereof and rural areas.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
L-Bank logo.

L-Bank (Rank 5)
Germany

Landeskreditbank Baden-Wurttemberg Forderbank, also known as L-Bank, it is committed to ensuring a high-performing economy, a high quality of life and a secure future.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
Nederlandse Waterschapsbank.

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank (Rank 6)
The Netherlands

Nederlandse Waterschapsbank is a leading financial services provider for the public sector.

The bank arranges short-term and long-term loans for municipal authorities, provinces, public housing, healthcare, educational institutions and activities in the field of water and the environment.

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World's 30 safest banks

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Caisse des Depots et Consignations.

Caisse des Depots et Consignations (Rank 7)
France

The Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC) is a French financial organisation created in 1816, and part of the government institutions under the control of the Parliament.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
NRW.Bank.

NRW.Bank (Rank 8)
Germany

Established in 1969, NRW.BANK is a major German commercial and investment bank. Its owners (guarantors) are the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Regional Associations of the Rhineland and Westphalia-Lippe, and the Savings Banks and Giro Associations of the Rhineland and Westphalia-Lippe.

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World's 30 safest banks

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Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat.

Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat (Rank 9)
Luxembourg

Established by the Luxembourg government in 1856 as a savings bank, it became a full service bank on 25 October 1944. 

It offers all the services of a commercial bank, including retail banking and private banking.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
Rabobank.

Rabobank (Rank 10)
The Netherlands

Rabobank Group is a full-range financial services provider that offers services on cooperative principles.  The Rabobank Group has around 59,700 employees, who serve about 10 million customers in 44 countries.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
TD Bank Group.

TD Bank Group (Rank 11)
Canada

The Toronto-Dominion Bank is the second-largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and assets. It is also the sixth largest bank branch network in North America.

Commonly known as TD, the bank was created in 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
DBS Bank.

DBS Bank (Rank 12)
Singapore

DBS Bank was earlier known as The Development Bank of Singapore.

The bank was set up by Government of Singapore in June 1968 to take over the industrial financing activities from the Economic Development Board.  DBS Bank is the largest bank in South East Asia by assets and among the larger banks in Asia. 

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World's 30 safest banks

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Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (Rank 13)
Singapore

The Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation is one of Singapore's leading local banks, with group assets of more than 224 billion SGD. 

It has one of the highest bank credit ratings in the region. The bank has more than 530 branches with representative offices in 15 countries and territories.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
UOB Plaza and OUB Centre.

United Overseas Bank (Rank 14)
Singapore

United Overseas Bank (UOB) has charted steady growth in the last 76 years to establish itself as a leading bank in Singapore. 

Today, the UOB Group has a network of more than 500 offices spanning 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Western Europe and North America.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
Royal Bank of Canada.

Royal Bank of Canada (Rank 15)
Canada

The Royal Bank of Canada is the largest financial institution in Canada, as measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalisation. 

The bank serves 17 million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide. The bank was founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
An office worker waits next to a branch of National Australia Bank (NAB) in east Sydney.

National Australia Bank (Rank 16)
Australia

National Australia Bank is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalisation and customers. 

NAB is ranked 17th largest bank in the world measured by market capitalisation. It operates across 10 countries serving 8.3 million consumer and business banking customers.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
A Commonwealth Bank of Australia branch is seen in this time exposure shot in Sydney.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Rank 17)
Australia

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Fiji, Asia, USA and the United Kingdom. 

Founded in 1911 by the Australian government, the Commonwealth Bank is one of the 'big four' Australian banks.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
Pedestrians walk past an electronic display board in front of a Westpac bank in Queen Street, downtown Auckland.

Westpac (Rank 18)
Australia

Westpac registered as Westpac Banking Corporation is a multinational financial services, one of the Australian 'big four' banks and the second-largest bank in New Zealand.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST

ANZ Group (Rank 19)
Australia

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, commonly called ANZ, is the third largest bank by market capitalization in Australia.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
A customer makes a withdrawal from a Nordea automatic teller machine in Stockholm.

Nordea (Rank 20)
Sweden

Nordea Bank AB, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a Nordic-based financial services group operating in Northern Europe.

The bank is the result of the successive mergers and acquisitions of the Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian banks of Nordbanken, Merita Bank, Unibank and Kreditkassen (Christiania Bank) that took place between 1997 and 2000.

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World's 30 safest banks

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Bank of Nova Scotia (Rank 21)
Canada

The Bank of Nova Scotia, commonly known as Scotiabank, is the third largest bank in Canada by deposits and market capitalisation. It serves some 19 million customers in more than 55 countries around the world.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
People walk past the Handelsbanken head office in Stockholm.

Svenska Handelsbanken (Rank 22)
Sweden

Svenska Handelsbanken AB is a Swedish bank covering the entire banking spectrum of traditional corporate transactions, investment banking and trading as well as consumer banking including life insurance.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST

Caisse centrale Desjardins (Rank 23)
Canada

The Caisse centrale is a cooperative that belongs to the caisses through the Federation des caisses Desjardins du Quebec.

It offers financial services to the Group, to governments and to medium and large sized business.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST

Kiwibank (Rank 24)
New Zealand

Kiwibank Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the state-owned enterprise New Zealand Post Limited.

Through Kiwibank, New Zealand Post provides banking services through its PostShops (post offices) and joint venture Books & More and Papermate outlets throughout New Zealand.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST

HSBC (Rank 25)
United Kingdom

HSBC Holdings is a multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

As of 2012, it was the world's largest bank in terms of assets and sixth-largest public company, according to Forbes magazine.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST

China Development Bank (Rank 26)
China

The China Development Bank was established in March 1994 to provide development oriented finance for government projects of national priority.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST

Bank of Montreal (Rank 27)
Canada

The Bank of Montreal or BMO Financial Group, is one of the Big Five banks in Canada. On June 23, 1817, John Richardson and eight merchants signed the Articles of Association to establish the Bank of Montreal in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec.

The bank officially opened its doors for business on November 3, 1817, making it Canada's oldest bank.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST

CIBC (Rank 28)
Canada

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, CIBC, is one of Canada's chartered banks, fifth largest by deposits.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
A BNY Mellon sign is seen on their headquarters in New York's financial district.

BNY Mellon (Rank 29)
United States

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, referred to as BNY Mellon, is an American multinational banking and financial services corporation formed on July 1, 2007 as result of the merger of The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corporation.

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World's 30 safest banks

Last updated on: April 10, 2013 11:43 IST
A pedestrian walks past a logo of Agricultural Bank of China in front of its headquarters in Beijing.

Agricultural Development Bank of China (Rank 30)
China

The Agricultural Development Bank of China is responsible for funding projects related to China's economic growth.