South Africa’s banks dominated last year’s top 10 list of Africa’s largest private banks by assets under management (AuM), making a total of $70.2 billion in all.
This is according to the private banking survey which covers Africa, Asia and the Middle East conducted by the New World Wealth (NWW), a think tank which often collates information on the global wealth sector.
But Africa’s largest private banks by asset under management played second fiddle when compared to the world’s biggest private banks, with the global biggest private bank by asset under management being Swiss-based UBS with $1 trillion assets.
In Africa, Investec, a private bank which is dual-listed on the JSE and LSE, took the number one spot on the list with $23, 7 billion in assets under management.
It is followed on the list by the Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), a wholly-owned unit of South Africa’s third biggest bank FirstRand, with $13, 3 billion assets under management.
In the third and fourth place is the Stellenbosch-based financial services firm, PSG Konsult, whose assets under management in 2013 was standing at $10, 7 billion while Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth biggest bank, manages assets worth $8, 6 billion.
Sanlam, South Africa’s second biggest life insurer occupies the fifth place with $6, 8 billion in assets under management.
Absa, South Africa’s retail bank which is majority-owned by UK’s Barclays Bank, dwells in the sixth place with assets under management valued at only $3 billion. Standard Bank, which is Africa’s biggest bank by assets, is surprisingly in the eighth place with $2, 1 billion. In the ninth place it is the Johannesburg-based financial services firm, Citadel, at $2 billion assets under management.
The top 10 list of Africa’s biggest private banks also has two banks that are not necessarily based in Africa.
On the seventh place is the Luxemburg-based Maitland at $2.1 billion while the 10th place is occupied by Stonehage at $1, 9 billion.
