MANILA, Philippines — Eight Philippine banks have landed on Forbes’ inaugural World’s Top Performing Banks 2026 ranking, putting some of the country’s biggest financial institutions alongside leading lenders from across the globe.
But one Philippine bank achieved an even bigger distinction.
Asia United Bank (AUB) ranked No. 1 worldwide among banks in its asset-size category, beating competitors from multiple countries in Forbes’ new data-driven assessment of financial strength and performance.
The Philippine banks included in the 2026 ranking are BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. (Metrobank), China Banking Corp. (Chinabank), Philippine National Bank (PNB), Asia United Bank, Bank of Commerce and Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCOM).
Forbes and research firm Statista evaluated 500 banks from 89 countries, separating institutions into six categories based on total assets so smaller lenders would not be directly compared with banking giants managing hundreds of billions of dollars.
Philippine banking giants enter global field
BDO, BPI and Metrobank were classified under Tier 3, covering upper mid-sized banks with between $50 billion and $100 billion in total assets.
Chinabank and PNB were placed in Tier 4, covering institutions with assets of between $20 billion and $50 billion.
Meanwhile, AUB, Bank of Commerce and PBCOM competed in Tier 6, the category for banks with between $3 billion and $10 billion in assets.
The tier system matters because Forbes did not simply rank the world’s biggest banks. It compared banks against institutions of similar scale, allowing profitability, balance-sheet strength and operational performance to play a larger role than size alone.
That approach produced perhaps the most striking Philippine result: AUB finished No. 1 in the entire Tier 6 global ranking, ahead of Moldova-based maib, which placed second.
Why AUB’s No. 1 ranking stands out
AUB entered the Forbes ranking after delivering one of its strongest financial years on record.
The lender reported ₱12.7 billion in consolidated net income for 2025, up 12% from ₱11.4 billion the previous year. Its return on equity reached about 20%, while return on assets stood at 3.1%.
AUB’s total assets rose 13% to roughly ₱435 billion, while its loan portfolio climbed to ₱276 billion. Net interest income increased 10% to ₱18.4 billion.
Its performance continued into 2026. A PSE filing showed AUB generating about ₱3.20 billion in first-quarter net income, while its low-cost deposit base and loan portfolio continued to support profitability.
That combination helps explain why a bank much smaller than BDO, BPI or Metrobank could emerge as the Philippine standout in a ranking focused on financial efficiency rather than sheer scale.
Forbes looked beyond bank size and customer popularity
The 2026 World’s Top Performing Banks ranking is different from Forbes’ better-known World’s Best Banks list.
The latter relies primarily on customer surveys covering areas such as trust, service and digital banking experience.
The new Top Performing Banks ranking instead uses objective financial data, including information from sources such as S&P Capital IQ, desk research and data submitted by banks.
Banks were evaluated across four major categories:
Profitability accounted for 30% of the total assessment, including measurements such as return on average assets, net interest margin and cost-to-income ratio.
Capital and funding resilience accounted for 25%, while another 25% was based on asset quality and efficiency.
The remaining 20% measured growth and earnings quality, including the consistency of earnings and customer deposit growth over several years.
To qualify, a bank generally needed more than $3 billion in assets, audited financial statements and at least three consecutive years of financial information.
That methodology means inclusion does not necessarily indicate that a bank is the most popular with consumers. Instead, it signals that its financial performance compared favorably with similarly sized institutions.
BDO remains the Philippines’ banking heavyweight
The ranking also highlights the contrast between size and efficiency inside the Philippine banking system.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data showed BDO remaining the country’s largest universal and commercial bank, with approximately ₱5.53 trillion in assets as of March 31, 2026.
BPI followed with about ₱3.66 trillion, while Metrobank held roughly ₱3.41 trillion. Chinabank had more than ₱2.01 trillion, while PNB reported about ₱1.32 trillion.
BDO’s scale also placed it comfortably inside Forbes’ $50-billion-to-$100-billion Tier 3 category. Forbes separately reported the lender with about $94.1 billion in assets in its 2026 company profile.
Yet the Forbes ranking demonstrates why asset size alone does not determine which banks perform best.
AUB, with only a fraction of BDO’s balance sheet, managed to beat every other bank in its global peer category.
Smaller Philippine banks are also delivering stronger numbers
Bank of Commerce, another Tier 6 Philippine entrant, reported ₱3.54 billion in net income for 2025, up 17% from the previous year.
Its total assets reached approximately ₱286.9 billion, while return on equity improved to 10.14%. The San Miguel Corp.-affiliated lender continued that momentum in the first half of 2026, reporting ₱2.11 billion in net income, 13% higher year on year.
PBCOM, meanwhile, reported total assets of about ₱192.1 billion as of June 30, 2026, with first-half net income reaching approximately ₱975.6 million compared with ₱906.5 million during the same period a year earlier.
Those numbers help show why smaller Philippine lenders can compete effectively when rankings emphasize returns, efficiency, capitalization and asset quality rather than market size alone.
Philippine banks compete with some of the world’s strongest lenders
Globally, Singapore emerged prominently in Forbes’ largest-bank category.
OCBC Bank ranked No. 1 among global banks with more than $500 billion in assets, followed by DBS Group at No. 2.
Zimbabwe’s CBZ Bank led the $100-billion-to-$500-billion category, while Saudi Arabia’s Alinma led the $50-billion-to-$100-billion group.
SoFi topped the $20-billion-to-$50-billion category, while Denmark’s Ringkjøbing Landbobank led the $10-billion-to-$20-billion tier.
And in the smallest qualifying category, the Philippines took the top position through AUB.
The result gives the Philippines an unusually broad presence in Forbes’ inaugural ranking: the country’s representatives range from BDO, one of Southeast Asia’s largest financial institutions, to much smaller lenders such as AUB, BankCom and PBCOM.
For Philippine banking, that may be the more important message behind the list.
The country’s biggest institutions have enough scale to compete internationally—but some of its smaller banks are proving they can compete on profitability, efficiency and balance-sheet strength as well.
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