Kenya Commercial Bank Group has earned a place among the world’s 500 top-performing banks in the inaugural Forbes World’s Top Performing Banks 2026.
The ranking places the East African lender in a league assessed primarily on hard financial data rather than customer perception.
Forbes produced the report in partnership with market research firm Statista, covering 500 banks from 89 countries.
The new index used audited financial performance, data providers including S&P Capital IQ, desk research and information submitted by banks.
Forbes’ methodology explicitly measures profitability, growth and earnings quality, capital and funding resilience, and asset quality and efficiency.
Profitability carries the biggest weighting at 30 per cent, incorporating measures such as return on average assets, cost-to-income ratio and net interest margin.
Growth and earnings quality account for 20 per cent, while capital and funding resilience and asset quality and efficiency each carry 25 per cent.
The latter categories examine indicators including equity strength, loan-to-deposit ratios, credit quality, risk management and balance-sheet resilience.
KCB’s recognition comes after a strong 2025 financial year in which the regional banking group posted a record Sh68.4 billion net profit, an 11 per cent increase.
Total revenue rose to Sh211.8 billion, while total assets expanded to Sh2.15 trillion despite the disposal of National Bank of Kenya.
Net loans stood at Sh1.15 trillion and customer deposits at Sh1.59 trillion.
The bank’s 22.5 per cent return on equity was another important indicator of its ability to generate shareholder returns, while net interest margin stood at 7.7 per cent.
Moreover, loans grew by 16.3 per cent and deposits by 15.2 per cent.
The methodology also groups banks into six asset-size categories, ranging from global banks with more than $500 billion (Sh64.7 trillion) in assets to small banks with $3 billion-$10 billion (Sh388 billion to Sh1.3 trillion).
This prevents the largest institutions from being compared directly with much smaller lenders.
At the top of the respective categories are OCBC Bank and DBS Group of Singapore among global banks.
The index noted the prominence of African lenders, with Zimbabwe’s CBZ topping the $100-$500 billion large-bank tier, while Egypt’s CIB took second place in the $20-$50 billion mid-sized category.
KCB’s inclusion adds Kenya to a select group of African institutions demonstrating that scale, profitability and resilience can compete favourably on a global financial benchmark.
The recognition is significant for KCB as it presents itself as a regional bank, with subsidiaries outside Kenya contributing heavily to its profitability.
Nearly 30 per cent of its 2025 net profit came from subsidiaries outside KCB Bank Kenya, while the group continues to expand its digital lending and regional franchise.
