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Investors that bought small capitalized bank stocks in 2022, such as Fidelity, FCMB, and Wema Bank, made a ton of money, while bigger names like Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), Access, First Bank and Stanbic IBTC lost out.
Wema Bank was the top performing stock in 2022 with a +80.56% return for investors. This was followed by Fidelity Bank that gained +70.59%, JAIZ Bank +64.29% and FCMB +28.76%.
Mid-Tier lender Union Bank which was acquired by Titan Trust Bank in 2021 rallied by +8.47%.
Coming at the rear were the large cap banks which lost money for investors that picked them in their portfolios.
GTB was the worst performing large bank with -11.54% returns. This was followed by Access Holdings -8.6%, Stanbic IBTC -7.08%, UBA -5.59%, Zenith Bank -4.57%, and First Ban (FBNH), which returned-4.39%.
Analysts say large Nigerian Banks struggled to rally in 2022 as tighter regulatory pressures, increased competition from FinTech’s and lower Net Interest margins put a squeeze on profitability.
There were also questions around the execution of Holding Company (HoldCo) strategy by firms like GTB and Access.