Kazakhstani banks topped The Banker's rankings for profitability and capital growth in Asia

Kazakhstan's banks lead Asia in return on assets, according to a ranking compiled by The Banker magazine. The list does not include Asia's two largest economies—China and Japan.

The leader, Kaspi Bank, posted a return on assets of 6.06% for 2025, while Halyk Bank trailed slightly behind with a return of 5.06%, taking second place. Alatau City Bank ranked fourth with a return of 3.77%. The top five also included the Maldivian Bank of Maldives (4.46%) and the Indonesian Bank Central Asia (3.63%).

Kazakhstani banks also hold three of the top five spots in terms of return on equity: Kaspi Bank is once again in the lead with 43.01%, followed by Bank CenterCredit (34.12%), with Halyk Bank in fifth place (30.68%). The other two spots went to Pakistan’s Meezan Bank and United Bank.

In the top 10 for growth in Tier 1 capital, Kazakhstan’s ForteBank ranked third—its capital grew by 47.3% over the year. In addition to ForteBank, the top 10 included Kaspi Bank (40.43%), Bank CenterCredit (35.14%), and Alatau City Bank (22.08%). Pakistan’s United Bank (66.02%) leads this ranking; another Central Asian bank, Uzbekistan’s Xalq Bank (42.39%), also made the list.

A total of six Kazakhstani banks are included in this year’s consolidated *The Banker* Top 1000 ranking: Halyk Bank (271st place), Kaspi Bank (522), Alatau City Bank (615), Bank CenterCredit (705), ForteBank (710), and Eurasian Bank (973).

There have been changes in the top 10 of the list: China’s Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) moved up to 10th place, displacing the U.S.’s Wells Fargo. Chinese banks now hold seven of the top 10 spots, with the remaining three belonging to U.S. banks; the largest of these, JPMorgan Chase, ranks only fifth. In first place is the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which first claimed this position in 2013.

At the same time, the authors of the ranking note that China’s dominance in it rests on rather shaky ground: “Such successes should be viewed in the context of large-scale government intervention by Beijing over the past two years to support the banking sector, whose condition continues to deteriorate. PSBC’s rating upgrade was the result of a 130 billion yuan ($19 billion) capital injection—part of last year’s 520 billion yuan government program, in which the Bank of China, Bank of Communications, and China Construction Bank (all among the world’s top 10 – Oninvest.com),” the commentary states.

In particular, the authors note that the average return on assets for 181 U.S. banks was 1.04%, compared with a global average of 0.79%—and just 0.63% for the 143 Chinese banks included in the ranking.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor