RIYADH, 17 December 2003 — Citigroup has topped the list of Top 1,000 world banks published by The Banker magazine in its July 2003 edition. “Citigroup tops the list in terms of capital, market value and assets,” says the magazine in its annual report.
In The Banker’s latest listing, the total pretax profits of the Top 1,000 banks grew by 13.3 percent to reach $252.4 billion compared to $222.8 billion in the previous year. Despite difficult economic circumstances, overall profits of world banks showed good signs of recovery this year, especially US banks. The pretax profits of the 210 US banks in the Top 1,000 rose by a staggering 25.8 percent in 2002 to $124.1 billion. This meant that these banks contributed 49 percent of the profits of the Top 1,000 banks.
Citigroup, which tops the list, goes from strength to strength and is by far the largest bank in the world in terms of capital ($100 billion), with assets of over $1 trillion and pretax profits of $22.8 billion in 2002. It is also one of the most profitable, producing a return on average capital of 38.8 percent.
This listing comes on the heels of a long successful track of remarkable achievements for Citigroup in the past few years. The group’s success is credited to the strategies adopted by its management to minimize cost and increase revenue on one hand, and enter new markets internationally on the other.
Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal started investing in Citibank in 1991 and is now the largest shareholder in Citigroup. Prince Alwaleed commented on this achievement reconfirming his total confidence in the group’s international force and successful management that weathered global economic crises.
Prince Alwaleed’s association with Citigroup started in 1991 when he invested $590 million in Citibank. Since then, the bank’s stocks rose substantially, and the bank established a strong world economic name for itself. It later merged with Travelers Group to establish Citigroup, the world’s number one financial company that provides its services in more than 110 countries.
Prince Alwaleed monitors the success of Citigroup carefully, and strongly believes in holding meetings with the group’s management, especially with its chairman Sandy Weill. In the past few years, several meetings were held between the two in New York and Paris to discuss the developments in the business world.