South Africa's largest banks have strengthened their position as the continent's financial leaders, with Standard Bank widening its lead as Africa's biggest bank by Tier 1 Capital and Capitec overtaking Investec in the latest global rankings.
The findings come from The Banker magazine's 2026 ranking of the world's top 1,000 banks, which assesses institutions based on Tier 1 Capital (T1C) – a key measure of a bank's core financial strength and its ability to absorb losses.
Six South African banks featured in this year's rankings, collectively growing their Tier 1 Capital by 17.6% to $51.1 billion during the 2025 financial year. The increase follows a 10.1% rise recorded in the previous year's rankings, highlighting continued resilience across the sector.
Standard Bank retained its position as South Africa's top-ranked bank for the tenth consecutive year. Its Tier 1 Capital increased by nearly 24% to $16.1 billion, significantly widening the gap between itself and second-placed FirstRand.
FirstRand also posted strong growth, with Tier 1 Capital rising 13% to $12.5 billion, while Absa remained in third place after recording a 19.3% increase to $10.1 billion.
Nedbank held onto fourth position with Tier 1 Capital of $6.6 billion, reflecting growth of 12.2%.
The biggest change in the local rankings came from Capitec, which overtook Investec for the first time to become South Africa's fifth-largest bank by Tier 1 Capital. Capitec's core capital grew by 20% to almost $3 billion, compared with Investec's 9.7% increase to $2.8 billion.
In addition to climbing the rankings, Capitec was recognised as Africa's top performer for return on assets, recording a ratio of 6.4%. The bank also achieved the strongest overall performance among South African banks, leading in six of the eight key performance indicators tracked by The Banker.
Despite their strong performance, The Banker noted that South African banks still account for less than 1% of the combined Tier 1 Capital of the global top 1,000 banks, and none currently features among the world's top 100.
However, the publication said South Africa's banking sector continues to outperform many global peers, with aggregate profits and Tier 1 Capital growth exceeding the overall average recorded by the world's largest banks.
The report attributed the sector's solid performance to an improving domestic economic environment during 2025, supported by lower interest rates, despite the impact of a 30% tariff imposed by the United States on certain South African exports.