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Fransabank advanced in its position from the 828 th to the 802 nd rank in the list of international banks for the year 2001, in terms of financial strength as measured by Tier-I Capital, which totaled to USD 218 million. This advancement in Fransabank’s international ranking was manifested in “The Banker” annual survey in its July 2002 issue, which contains the list of Top 1000 International Banks in terms of financial strength. The survey revealed that Fransabank ranked 792 nd among the top 1000 international banks in terms of size as measured by total assets which reached USD 3,108 million in 2001. Also, the bank was in the 428 th position in 2001 up from 484 th position in terms of banking soundness as measured by the ratio of capital to total assets 7.03%. the survey also revealed that Fransabank was in the 311 th position in 2001 in terms of overall performance as measured by the ratio of profit to average capital 19.6%, and 353rd in terms of the return on assets 1.3%. it indicated that Fransabank enjoys a low cost-to-income ratio among Arab banks which was 43.93% in 2001, and a high Basel-calculated capital adequacy ratio of 21.57%. The Banker’s survey of Top 1000 International Banks exhibited 75 Arab banks, and Fransabank was in the 60 th position among Arab Banks in terms of financial strength growth by 12.9% over the past two years, with assets growth standing at 5.7%, improvement in banking soundness from 6.56% to 7.03% and by 56 points in position, and improvement in performance 5.2 basis points. In parallel, the annual study of the Union of Arab Banks about the Arab banking sector conducted in September 2002 also revealed that Fransabank was in the 50 th position in the list of Top 100 Arab Banks in terms of assets size, advancing one position from the previous year. It also occupied the 5 th position among Lebanese banks in terms of assets size.
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