Highest Return on Assets Among All Banks in The Americas: BBD

Bradesco, BBD on the NYSE, has currently the highest Return on Assets among all the largest banks traded in the United States and Latin America, according to Economatica research firm, reports newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo.

The stock is up 127% this year. We track all Latin-American ADRs here.

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BBD climbed up 2 spots from 2008. It had been 7 years that a Latin American bank had not held first place as the most profitable. The last time was in 2001 when also Brazilian Itau (now Itau-Unibanco) led the list.

The calculation for Return on Assets (ROA) was done by dividing the profit from January to September by total assets in September. After holding the second position in 2008, Itaú-Unibanco has fallen to third place. Bank of Brazil holds fifth place.

Santander Brazil, in turn, came in tenth, improving five positions from 2008.

Considering only assets, the largest bank in the United States and Latin America is the Bank of America, with U.S. $ 2.251T. The top Latin American bank in this regard is Bank of Brazil, with U.S. $385.6B.

As for profits, Wells Fargo has the highest January-September, with $ 9.45B.

According to the study, only 20 banks in Latin America and the United States had assets of more than $100B in September 2009.