Nairobi, Thursday 4^th November 2021: Equity has once again been named among global giants in banking. The Kenyan lender has been ranked position 39 globally on return on assets, position 71 on return on capital, and position 149 on soundness (Capital Assets to Assets ratio), in the Top 1,000 World Banks 2021 by The Banker magazine.

This evaluation is derived after analysing banks through eight categories: growth, profitability, operational efficiency, asset quality, and return on risk, liquidity, soundness, and leverage. Overall, Equity was ranked 22nd in Africa and 761st globally based on its Tier 1 capital base of USD 1,096 million.

Equity’s exemplary performance in the rankings comes on the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down several sectors of the local economy. Prioritizing people and lives over profits, the bank made significant investments in protecting communities and stakeholders. In partnership with the Kenya COVID-19 Emergency Board, it provided PPEs to health workers in 56 county and national hospitals, and 60 faith-based facilities. The lender also supported 17,800 Wings to Fly and Elimu Scholars to cope with the prolonged school closure. It provided them with solar-powered radios and lamps with a mobile charging unit that allowed them to continue learning while providing for their life’s essentials financed by a monthly stipend with the support of Mastercard Foundation.

During the multi-crisis year, Equity focused on social impact investment, forgoing Kshs. 1.5 billion in waived mobile transaction fees, waiving Kshs.1.2 billion in loan rescheduling fees and accommodating Kshs.171 billion (or 31%) of the loan book for up to 3 years of principal and interest repayment breaks to enable businesses to survive.

Commenting on the ranking, Equity Group Managing Director and CEO Dr James Mwangi noted that the ranking is an indication that Equity remains robust despite the challenging operating environment.

“These global rankings are truly an affirmation befitting the financial strength and professionalism of the Bank, as well as the measures we took in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We strengthened our capital buffers by retaining profits and withholding dividend payouts, took long-term loan facilities that strengthened our liquidity buffers, supported host communities and our clients to mitigate the impact of the crisis on them by waiving fees and rescheduling their loans to match loan repayments to new cashflow patterns,” Dr. James Mwangi, Equity Group Managing Director and CEO observed.

Equity Group, which operates in six countries, weathered the COVID-19 disruption to register a 98% growth in its 2021 half-year Profits After Tax to Kshs.17.9 billion up from Kshs.9.1 billion the previous year.  The Group, which is the largest bank in the region in assets, also reported a growth in total assets to Kshs. 1.12 trillion up from Kshs. 746.5 billion the previous year. Customer deposits grew by 51% to Kshs. 820.3 billion up from Kshs. 543.9 billion in the same period, retaining the lender’s position as the biggest bank in deposits, market capitalization and with a customer base of over 15 million customers.

The Banker’s global and regional rankings have been industry-standard measures of financial institutions performance for over 50 years. The Banker’s Top 1,000 World Banks ranks the largest banks by Tier 1 capital, a key measure of banking strength. In addition, they analyse more than 120 data points tracked by The Banker Database year-on-year. The ranking is an invaluable resource for benchmarking bank-to-bank, as well as understanding the health and wealth of the global banking industry.

About Equity Group Holdings

Equity Group Holdings Plc is a Pan-African financial services holding company listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Uganda Securities Exchange, and Rwanda Stock Exchange. The Group has banking subsidiaries in Kenya, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and a Commercial Representative Office in Ethiopia.  It has other subsidiaries in investment banking, insurance, telecom, fintech and social impact investments.

Equity Group is the largest bank in the region in assets of Kshs 1.12 trillion (USD 11.2 billion). It is also the biggest bank in deposits, market capitalization of USD 2billion and with a customer base of over 15 million customers. The Group has a footprint of 337 branches, 56,772 Agents, 32,269 Merchants, 697 ATMs and an extensive adoption of digital banking channel.

The Banker Top 1000 World Banks 2020 ranked Equity Bank 754 overall in its global ranking, 62nd in soundness (Capital Assets to Assets ratio), 55th in terms of Profits on Capital and 20th on Return on Assets. The Banker’s Top 100 African Banks 2020 placed the Bank in position 7 overall among the top 10 Banks in Africa, 5th place on soundness, position 9 on growth performance, 8th on return on risk and position 6th in terms of profitability and on leverage category.

In the same year, Moody’s gave the Bank a global rating of B2 with a negative outlook same as the sovereign rating of the Kenyan government due to the Bank’s strong brand recognition, solid liquidity buffers and resilient funding profile, established domestic franchise and extensive adoption of digital and alternative distribution channels.