CANBERRA (Reuters) - Canada has the world's soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.
Canadian banks received a score of 6.8, just ahead of Sweden (6.7), Luxembourg (6.7), Australia (6.7) and Denmark (6.7).
But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 44th place behind El Salvador and Peru, after a 50 billion pound ($86.5 billion) pledge this week by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.
The United States, where some of Wall Street's biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 40, just behind Germany at 39, and smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia and even Namibia, in southern Africa.
Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- David Denison, who oversees investments for Canada’s pensions, says his country’s banks are the best in the world right now and Barack Obama, like so many money managers from Beijing to Paris, can’t disagree. Money managers from Brazil, China, France, Ireland and Australia scheduled visits to Denison’s Toronto office in the past two weeks to learn how Canada and its banks and pension funds are weathering the financial crisis. The visitors include the AustralianSuper Fund.
Australian banks retain some of the highest ratings in the world, with the big four lenders, each carrying a deposit and debt rating of Aa1. ----------- That Survey was back in Oct 08. The other day reports implied Oz Banks are best in world; while there's no doubt now Brit banks are near hopeless.
But before we start cheering, reckon we need more info from our Big Four.
