The Banker Magazine has released a preview of its “The Banker Top 1000 World Banks” list. The banks in the list are ranked based on their Tier 1 capital ratio. According to the magazine, “Tier 1 capital is the most relevant measurement of bank strength”.

The Top Five Strongest Banks for 2009 are:

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The top ranked bank in the world is JPMorgan Chase (JPM). In my recent article titled A Review of Tier 1 Capital Ratios of Large US Banks, JPMorgan Chase had a Tier 1 ratio of 11.30%. The second ranked bank is Bank of America (BAC) and the third place went to Citigroup (C). Hence all the top 3 positions to U.S.-based banks.

The fourth and fifth positions went Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HSBC (HBC). HSBC was ranked number one last year. Unlike the other four banks in the top five, HSBC did not receive any government aid.

Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ took the seventh position. The magazine said China’s ICBC was the most profitable bank with earnings of $21.3 billion last year.

Posted below is a video from The Banker magazine discussing the Top 1000 banks list for 2009: