OREANDA-NEWS. March 15, 2013. The international financial publication Global Finance assessed the biggest banks in the world on the basis of long-term credit rating and capitalisation, and once again, named Nordea the safest Nordic bank.

Global Finance analyses the bank ratings and assets of the 500 largest banks each year and selects the 50 safest banks in the world. This time, Nordea placed 20th in the ranking of safest banks in the world and was found, once again, to be the safest Nordic bank.

The list is updated every 6 months and compared to August 2012, Nordea has risen four places, making it the third top riser on the list.

The ranking was created through an evaluation of long-term credit ratings—from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings—and total assets of the 500 largest banks worldwide.

The German bank KfW was found to be the world's safest bank.  The Dutch Bank Nederlandse Germeenten came in second, Swiss Zurcher Kantonalbank in third, German Landwirtschaftliche Rentebank in fourth, German L-Bank in fifth and  Dutch Nederlandse Waterschapsbank in sixth place. The top four safest banks have remained the same as in August 2012.

Out of Nordic banks, we find Svenska Handelsbanken in 22nd, Finnish Pohjola Bank is 34th, Swedish SEB is 49th and Norwegian DnB in 50th place.