GTCO, Zenith top FUGAZ in capital adequacy ratio

GTCO, Zenith top FUGAZ in capital adequacy ratio

Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and Zenith Bank are leading Nigeria’s biggest banks in

capital adequacy ratio in the first quarter of 2026.

The CAR compares a bank’s available capital to its risk-weighted assets to ensure the institution can absorb a reasonable amount of losses and avoid insolvency during economic downturns, according to Investopedia, an investment dictionary. A bank with a good CAR has sufficient capital to absorb potential losses. Thus, it has less risk of becoming insolvent and losing depositors’ money, according to the Corporate Finance Institute.

The Central Bank of Nigeria mandates banks to maintain a minimum CAR based on their licence type. For banks that are international and systemically important banks, the CBN allows a CAR of

15 per cent. But national and regional banks have a CAR of 10 per cent.

According to the analyses of the Q1 financial results of First Holdco, UBA, GTCO, Access and

Zenith, often referred to as FUGAZ, the bank with the best CAR in the quarter is GTCO.

Its CAR stood at 39.5 per cent. GTCO is followed by Zenith, with a CAR of 23.5 per cent. Next is UBA with a CAR of 23.2 per cent. Access Bank had a CAR of 17.25 per cent in the quarter, while First Holdco had the lowest CAR of 13.4 per cent.

According to Fitch, most major Nigerian banks maintained an average CAR well above 20 per cent in Q1 2026, thereby surpassing the regulatory minimums set by the CBN for international/systemically important banks and for other licensed banks.

African Financials, which empowers retail investors, said some financial institutions faced temporary headwinds or brief regulatory breaches related to heavy credit exposures and risk reserves, citing First Bank’s subsidiary. It, however, admitted that the bank had broader systemic buffers in spite of its lower CAR.

Source: https://punchng.com/gtco-zenith-top-fugaz-in-capital-adequacy-ratio/