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Where the World’s Banks Make the Most Money

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Where the World's Banks Make the Most Money

Where the World’s Banks Make the Most Money

Profits in banking have been steadily on the rise since the financial crisis.

Just last year, the global banking industry cashed in an impressive $1.36 trillion in after-tax profits โ โ€” the highest total in the sector seen in the last 20 years.

What are the drivers behind revenue and profits in the financial services sector, and where do the biggest opportunities exist in the future?

Following the Money

Today’s infographic comes to us from McKinsey & Company, and it leverages proprietary insights from their Panorama database.

Using data stemming from more than 60 countries, we’ve broken down historical banking profits by region, while also visualizing key ratios that help demonstrate why specific countries are more profitable for the industry.

Finally, we’ve also looked at the particular geographic regions that may present the biggest opportunities in the future, and why they are relevant today.

Banking Profits, by Region

Before we look at what’s driving banking profits, let’s start with a breakdown of annual after-tax profits by region over time.

Banking Profit by Year and Region ($B)

2009201020112012201320142015201620172018
United States$19$118$176$263$268$263$291$275$270$403
China$95$135$174$225$255$278$278$270$301$333
Western Europe$78$34$21-$70$28$95$154$159$186$198
Rest of World$196$243$265$285$309$327$348$361$387$421
Global ($B)$388$530$635$703$859$963$1,070$1,065$1,144$1,356

In 2018, the United States accounted for $403 billion of after-tax profits in the banking sector โ โ€” however, China sits in a very close second place, raking in $333 billion.

What’s Under the Hood?

While thereโ€™s no doubt that financial services can be profitable in almost any corner of the globe, what is less obvious is where this profit actually comes from.

The truth is that banking can vary greatly depending on location โ โ€” and what drives value for banks in one country may be completely different from what drives value in another.

Let’s look at data and ratios from four very different places to get a sense of how financial services markets can vary.

CountryRARC/GDPLoans Penetration/GDPMargins (RBRC/Total Loans)Risk Cost Margin
United States5.4%121%5.0%0.4%
China6.6%147%6.0%1.4%
Singapore13.0%316%4.6%0.4%
Finland3.4%133%2.8%0.2%
Global Average5.1%124%5.0%0.8%

1. RARC / GDP (Revenues After Risk Costs / GDP)
This ratio shows compares a countryโ€™s banking revenues to overall economic production, giving a sense of how important banking is to the economy. Using this, you can see that banking is far more important to Singapore’s economy than others in the table.

2. Loans Penetration / GDP
Loans penetration can be further broken up into retail loans and wholesale loans. The difference can be immediately seen when looking at data on China and the United States:

CountryRetail LoansWholesale LoansLoan Penetration (Total)
United States73%48%121%
China34%113%147%

In America, banks make loans primarily to the retail sector. In China, there’s a higher penetration on a wholesale basis โ€” usually loans being made to corporations or other such entities.

3. Margins (Revenues Before Risk Costs / Total Loans)
Margins made on lending is one way for bankers to gauge the potential of a market, and as you can see above, margins in the United States and China are both at (or above) the global average. Meanwhile, for comparison, Finland has margins that are closer to half of the global average.

4. Risk Cost Margin (Risk Cost / Total Loans)
Not surprisingly, China still holds higher risk cost margins than the global average. On the flipside, established markets like Singapore, Finland, and the U.S. all have risk margins below the global average.

Future Opportunities in Banking

While this data is useful at breaking down existing markets, it can also help to give us a sense of future opportunities as well.

Here are some of the geographic markets that have the potential to grow into key financial services markets in the future:

  1. Sub-Saharan Africa
    Despite having 16x the population of South Africa, the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa still generates fewer banking profits. With lower loan penetration rates and RARC/GDP ratios, there is significant potential to be found throughout the continent.
  2. India and Indonesia
    Compared to similar economies in Asia, both India and Indonesia present an interesting banking opportunity because of their high margins and low loan penetration rates.
  3. China
    While China has a high overall loan penetration rate, the retail loan category still holds much potential given the country’s population and growing middle class.

A Changing Landscape in Banking

As banks shift focus to face new market challenges, the next chapter of banking may be even more interesting than the last.

Add in the high stakes around digital transformation, aging populations, and new service opportunities, and the distance between winners and losers could lengthen even more.

Where will the money in banking be in the future?

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Markets

Mapped: The Growth in House Prices by Country

Global house prices were resilient in 2022, rising 6%. We compare nominal and real price growth by country as interest rates surged.

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The Growth in House Prices by Country

Mapped: The Growth in House Prices by Country

This was originally posted on Advisor Channel. Sign up to the free mailing list to get beautiful visualizations on financial markets that help advisors and their clients.

Global housing prices rose an average of 6% annually, between Q4 2021 and Q4 2022.

In real terms that take inflation into account, prices actually fell 2% for the first decline in 12 years. Despite a surge in interest rates and mortgage costs, housing markets were noticeably stable. Real prices remain 7% above pre-pandemic levels.

In this graphic, we show the change in residential property prices with data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

The Growth in House Prices, Ranked

The following dataset from the BIS covers nominal and real house price growth across 58 countries and regions as of the fourth quarter of 2022:

Price Growth
Rank
Country /
Region
Nominal Year-over-Year
Change (%)
Real Year-over-Year
Change (%)
1๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ท Tรผrkiye167.951.0
2๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ธ Serbia23.17.0
3๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡บ Russia23.19.7
4๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฐ North Macedonia20.61.0
5๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ธ Iceland20.39.9
6๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท Croatia17.33.6
7๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ช Estonia16.9-3.0
8๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Israel16.811.0
9๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ Hungary16.5-5.1
10๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡น Lithuania16.0-5.5
11๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Slovenia15.44.2
12๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌ Bulgaria13.4-3.2
13๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท Greece12.23.7
14๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น Portugal11.31.3
15๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง United Kingdom10.0-0.7
16๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Slovak Republic9.7-4.8
17
๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช United Arab Emirates
9.62.9
18๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ Poland9.3-6.9
19๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ป Latvia9.1-10.2
20๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Singapore8.61.9
21๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช Ireland8.6-0.2
22๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Chile8.2-3.0
23๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan7.93.9
24๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ Mexico7.9-0.1
25๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ญ Philippines7.7-0.2
26๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ United States7.10.0
27๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ Czechia6.9-7.6
28๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด Romania6.7-7.5
29๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡น Malta6.3-0.7
30๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡พ Cyprus6.3-2.9
31๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ด Colombia6.3-5.6
32๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡บ Luxembourg5.6-0.5
33๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ Spain5.5-1.1
34๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ Switzerland5.42.4
35๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ Netherlands5.4-5.3
36๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น Austria5.2-4.8
37๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท France4.8-1.2
38๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ช Belgium4.7-5.7
39๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ Thailand4.7-1.1
40๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ South Africa3.1-4.0
41๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ India2.8-3.1
42๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Italy2.8-8.0
43๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Norway2.6-3.8
44๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ฉ Indonesia2.0-3.4
45๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ช Peru1.5-6.3
46๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡พ Malaysia1.2-2.6
47๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท South Korea-0.1-5.0
48๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Morocco-0.1-7.7
49๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ท Brazil-0.1-5.8
50๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ Finland-2.3-10.2
51๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Denmark-2.4-10.6
52๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ Australia-3.2-10.2
53๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช Germany-3.6-12.1
54๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช Sweden-3.7-13.7
55๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ China-3.7-5.4
56๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Canada-3.8-9.8
57๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟ New Zealand-10.4-16.5
58๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ฐ Hong Kong SAR-13.5-15.1

Tรผrkiyeโ€™s property prices jumped the highest globally, at nearly 168% amid soaring inflation.

Real estate demand has increased alongside declining interest rates. The government drastically cut interest rates from 19% in late 2021 to 8.5% to support a weakening economy.

Many European countries saw some of the highest price growth in nominal terms. A strong labor market and low interest rates pushed up prices, even as mortgage rates broadly doubled across the continent. For real price growth, most countries were in negative territoryโ€”notably Sweden, Germany, and Denmark.

Nominal U.S. housing prices grew just over 7%, while real price growth halted to 0%. Prices have remained elevated given the stubbornly low supply of inventory. In fact, residential prices remain 45% above pre-pandemic levels.

How Do Interest Rates Impact Property Markets?

Global house prices boomed during the pandemic as central banks cut interest rates to prop up economies.

Now, rates have returned to levels last seen before the Global Financial Crisis. On average, rates have increased four percentage points in many major economies. Roughly three-quarters of the countries in the BIS dataset witnessed negative year-over-year real house price growth as of the fourth quarter of 2022.

Interest rates have a large impact on property prices. Cross-country evidence shows that for every one percentage point increase in real interest rates, the growth rate of housing prices tends to fall by about two percentage points.

When Will Housing Prices Fall?

The rise in U.S. interest rates has been counteracted by homeowners being reluctant to sell so they can keep their low mortgage rates. As a result, it is keeping inventory low and prices high. Homeowners canโ€™t sell and keep their low mortgage rates unless they meet strict conditions on a new property.

Additionally, several other factors impact price dynamics. Construction costs, income growth, labor shortages, and population growth all play a role.

With a strong labor market continuing through 2023, stable incomes may help stave off prices from falling. On the other hand, buyers with floating-rate mortgages face steeper costs and may be unable to afford new rates. This could increase housing supply in the market, potentially leading to lower prices.

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