Safest bank

Given all the talk of bank failures and financial collapse, every investor must fear their money being wiped out by a banking collapse. But there are places to put your cash that are safer than others. Evaluating long-term credit ratings – from credit agencies Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch – as well as the banks’ actual assets, Global Finance magazine rates Germany’s KfW Bank the safest in the world. KfW is a "development bank" founded after World War II as part of the USA's Marshall Plan for reconstruction, is owned by the German central government and the country’s länder or federal states, and has almost all its lending backed by its government – which in turn has some of the lowest borrowing costs in the world.