LESS than a decade after Michael Lee-Chin took control of National Commercial Bank (NCB), it has gained recognition as being among the world’s best in return on assets and return on capital.

The Banker magazine, a publication of Financial Times in London, has ranked NCB atop the “Central America” region in both categories, with 4.03 per cent return on assets and 67.43 per cent return on capital for the financial year ended September 30, 2010, in its survey of ‘Top 1000’ banks knocking on the door for a place among the globe’s premier lending institutions.

What’s more is that the bank was ranked third and 14th, respectively, in the world among the contenders in return on capital and return on assets.

“To be listed among the world’s best is a humbling and gratifying acknowledgment for us. This is really wonderful news and the first thing I want to do is congratulate and thank every single one of my colleagues at all levels who have worked hard in the growth, development and transformation of our organisation,” NCB Group managing director Patrick Hylton told Sunday Finance.

“I also want to thank our customers who have given us the privilege of satisfying their financial needs on a daily basis. This ranking no doubt demonstrates, as we are assessed objectively amongst our peers on key performance ratios, that we are on the right track to building a truly world class organisation,” he added.

NCB had assets totalling US$3.8 billion and Tier-1 capital of US$232.5 million at the end of the review period.

The Banker stated that the list of ‘Top 1000’ contenders comprised the biggest 267 banks by Tier 1 capital that did not make it into the ‘Top 1000’ banks, for which the cut off was US$255 million.

The magazine noted that African banks are among the world’s most profitable despite the fact that they are generally small. African banks made average return on assets of 3.65 per cent (on an unweighted basis) and return on capital of 35 per cent — the Crane Bank in Uganda was a top performer with return on assets of 8.70 per cent.

“These levels are far higher than the next most profitable region, South America, where banks made returns of 1.95 per cent on their assets and 19.6 per cent on their capital,” said the magazine in its analysis.

“African banks have been able to achieve high levels of profitability without taking substantial risks. Their capital adequacy ratios (CARs) average 11.3 per cent, only slightly below those of banks in South America, which have the highest CARs of 12.3 per cent,” continued the magazine. “Also, the data counter arguments that banking in Africa — which often involves building branches in remote, sparsely populated areas — is prohibitively expensive and necessarily inefficient. African lenders have the lowest average cost-to-income ratios (49 per cent) in the survey. Those in the Asia-Pacific and South America have respective ratios of 57 per cent and 64 per cent.”

Regionally, NCB was followed by Banco Financiera Comercial of Honduras (2.54 per cent) and the Barbados National Bank (1.95 per cent) in the return on assets rankings.

Lee-Chin, executive chairman of AIC Limited (a Canadian mutual fund company) and founder and chairman of Portland Holdings Inc, in 2002 bought a 75 per cent stake in NCB for US$127 million (J$6 billion) of which US$56 million was made as a downpayment.

Last year, NCB overtook Scotiabank Jamaica as the country’s most profitable bank registering an operating revenue of J$29.3 billion which produced a net profit of a record-breaking J$11.07 billion.

NCB last month announced its intention to list the commercial bank on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).