The Global Finance magazine publishes their top bank rankings each year for various categories. The lists for this year were published last month. In this post lets take a quick look at the top banks in North America.
From the report in the magazine:
The banks were selected through a comparison of the long-term credit ratings and total assets of the largest banks. Ratings from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch were used.
The Top 10 Safest Banks in North America for 2013:
| S.No. | Bank | Ticker | Dividend Yield as of Mar 15, 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TD Bank | TD | 3.81% |
| 2 | Royal Bank of Canada | RY | 4.10% |
| 3 | Bank of Nova Scotia | BNS | 3.79% |
| 4 | Caisse centrale Desjardins | N/A | N/A |
| 5 | Bank of Montreal | BMO | 4.64% |
| 6 | CIBC | CM | 4.57% |
| 7 | BNY Mellon | BK | 1.82% |
| 8 | CoBank,ACB | N/A | N/A |
| 9 | U.S. Bancorp | USB | 2.28% |
| 10 | Northern Trust | NTRS | 2.18% |
Source: The Top 10 Safest Banks in North America 2013, Global Finance
All the five major Canadian banks are considered to be the safest banks in North American by their independent analysis. In addition Quebec-based Desjardins Group’s Caisse centrale Desjardins also appears in this list.
Among the U.S. banks, none of the four super-banks made it to the list. BNY Mellon(BK), Northern Trust Corp(NTRS) and U.S. Bancorp(USB) are three good picks to ride the rebound in the banking sector. CoBank, ACB is an agricultural credit bank and is part of the US Farm Credit System. Based in outside of Denver, Colorado it serves farmers, ranchers and other rural customers. It operates as a cooperative bank and is not publicly-traded.
Note: Dividend yields noted are as of Mar 15, 2013
Disclosure: Long BMO, BNS, CM, RY, TD and USB
