Equity Group Holdings has been ranked the highest-performing bank in East and Central Africa in the inaugural Forbes World’s Top Performing Banks 2026 index, placing 71st globally within Tier 5.
The index, produced by Forbes in partnership with data and market research firm Statista, evaluated 500 banks across 89 countries using objective financial data from providers such as S&P Capital IQ, desk research and submissions from banks themselves, departing from the customer-survey methodology Forbes uses for its other bank rankings.
Eligible banks were split into six tiers by total assets, meaning institutions were scored against peers of similar size rather than against the world’s largest lenders outright.
Tier 5, where Equity placed, covers “lower mid-size banks” with between $10 billion and $20 billion in total assets. KCB Group also featured in Tier 5, while Co-operative Bank and Stanbic Bank were ranked in Tier 6, the $3 billion to $10 billion “small banks” band.
The ranking comes on the back of a strong run for Equity. In its most recent results, for the six months to June 2026, the bank’s total assets expanded 20 percent to Sh2.16 trillion (roughly $16.7 billion), driven by a 21 percent rise in customer deposits to Sh1.59 trillion and 19 percent growth in the loan book to Sh981 billion. Profit after tax rose 32 percent year-on-year to Sh45.5 billion, while return on equity stood at 26.5 percent and the non-performing loan ratio improved sharply to 9.5 percent from 13.7 percent a year earlier.
Equity’s regional subsidiaries have overtaken its Kenyan business by scale, now accounting for 52 percent of group banking assets, 51 percent of deposits and 42 percent of banking profitability. The bank holds a top-two market position by assets in half of the six countries it operates in, including Kenya, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was named Best Regional Bank in East Africa at the 2025 African Banker Awards.
Equity said the Forbes ranking validates its financial health and governance standards against global benchmarks, pointing to its more than 22 million customers across the region as beneficiaries of what it called a globally validated balance sheet. The lender said every transaction, trade facility and investment it processes is backed by that standard.
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