Yorkshire Bank parent a safe pair of hands

The research conducted by respected magazine Global Finance will be published in its nineteenth annual report on the world's 50 safest banks.

According to the report Spanish bank Santander, which has taken over Alliance & Leicester, Abbey and Bradford & Bingley's savings book, came in at number 14.

HSBC was nineteenth, Barclays Bank was ranked at number 34 and Nationwide was at number 46. No other UK banks made the list.

The top three global banks were KfW of Germany, CDC of France and Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten of the Netherlands.

Global Finance said the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and renewed concerns about the global economic outlook are putting the spotlight on bank safety.

Of the top 50 safest banks, 45 were among the top banks last year.

The magazine said that banks that have cleaned up their balance sheets and strengthened their capital positions were the biggest gainers.

Not one US bank made the top 20 with the best performer BNY Mellon which came in at number 30.

Germany and the Netherlands accounted for seven of the top 10 and the top ten were all European apart from Royal Bank of Canada which came in at number 10.

Some major banks have rejoined the top 50, although many of the big name banks that lost their safest bank ranking during the credit crunch are still absent from the list.

The 'World's 50 Safest Banks' 2010 were selected through a comparison of the long-term credit ratings and total assets of the 500 largest banks around the world.

Ratings from Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch were used.

Global Finance publisher Joseph Giarraputo said: "Banks that have strengthened their liquidity positions and the quality and quantity of their capital are recognised in these rankings.

"More than ever, customers around the world are viewing long-term credit worthiness as the key feature of banks with which they do business."

The survey will be published in the October issue of Global Finance.

The banks ranked one to 10 will be presented awards at a ceremony to be held during the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington in October.