The Global Finance magazine published their annual ranking of The Safest Banks in North America for 2012 back in March. From the news release:

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 Safest Banks in North America 2012 are listed below with their current dividend yields:

[TABLE=1063]

Source: Global Finance magazine

Six of the top 10 banks are Canadian banks with all the five major Canadian banks included in this list.Among the U.S. banks, Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) did not make it to this ranking. Denver, Colorado-based CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System and is not publicly listed. The Farm Credit System was formed by Congress in 1916 to offer long-term agricultural credit. In January this year, Cobank merged with U.S. AgBank.

Disclosure: Long BNS, BMO,CM, RY, TD and USB