Global Finance’s annual review of how safe banks are, uses the rating from Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P to assess the relative risks involved, see chart of position of the top 20 banks at end August 2014:

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HSBC ranked 27th. None of the other global network bank were ranked in the top 50. 

Not only this, none of the global network bank banks were ranked in top ten in any of the regions.

Even in the list of the 50 Safest Commercial Banks 2014 - only HSBC (16th) and BNP Paribas (32nd) were ranked.

So does this matter?

What matters, according the CFO of one of the largest European global companies, is whether the bank can be allowed to fail or not, e.g. Citi pay the US armed forces so they will never be allowed to fail. He gave many other examples, and concluded by saying that the safety rankings based on the three credit rating agencies are nice, but they have no relation to my world. Also he felt that, although CDS rates are useful indicator, the basic realities of commerce, like who pays the armed forces, are paramount.  

For further details on the Global Finance Magazine ‘The World’s Safest Banks’ survey, see.