Australia

Australia I China I Hong Kong I India I Indonesia I Japan I Malaysia I Mongolia I Pakistan I Philippines I Singapore I Taiwan I Thailand

Commonwealth Bank of Australia wins this year’s award for best bank in Australia. The country’s second-largest bank by assets, CBA beat its closest rivals in financial strength and performance terms. Earning a net interest margin of almost 2.5% and a return on average assets of 1.33% in the latest financial year, CBA benefited from one of the industry’s lowest cost-income ratios to produce a return on average equity of 15.71%.

Although CBA is a full-service bank covering wholesale, corporate, SME and retail markets, it excels in retail banking, being one of the largest providers of mortgage finance in Australia. It has also begun to invest overseas, most notably in China in the 12 months under review, where it purchased a 19.9% stake in Hangzhou City Commercial Bank and entered into a fund management joint venture through its asset management arm, Colonial First State Global Asset Management, with Cinda Asset Management Company, one of the four state-controlled asset managers.