Ranking the largest banks in the world by revenue, of the top 10, 4 are from China, 3 from the USA and one each from Brazil, Spain and UK.
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Ranking largest banks in the world by assets measures the total of the share capital and accumulated profits belonging to the bank, without taking into account the money belonging to customers. Of the top 15 banks by total assets in the last full year reported which was 2019, the first 4 are all Chinese banks which are partly or totally government-owned. USA and Japan have 4 banks each, France has 2 and UK has one.
While it is not possible yet to provide a list of the biggest banks in the world in 2021, the expected growth rate of bank revenue has been severely affected by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of 2020, the projected annual growth rate for 2021 and 2022 was 6% per year. It remains uncertain what the actual rate for 2021 will be, but the likelihood of stability coming by 2022 should see that rate being achieved.
There is not likely to be any change in the ranking of the top 10 largest banks in the world.
Since there are no global measures for ranking of banks in the world, one accepted measure is to take the accepted list of banks classified as “too big to fail”. This terminology came into effect after the global banking crisis in 2008, and is now almost universally applied. These banks are labeled by authorities as systemically important financial institutions, due to the degree of influence they hold in global and domestic financial markets.
- It is not possible to provide comparative figures of the biggest investment banks in the world, since some are privately controlled operations, and others are wholly-owned subsidiaries of other institutions (eg. Bank of America Securities, Barclays Investment Bank etc.).
- In the ranking of the biggest investment banks in the world, of the top 20 investment banks, 8 are from the USA, including the top 5. Other countries with more than one are Switzerland with three, and Japan, France, UK and Canada with two each.
Private banks provide services to large account super-wealthy clients. The measure of is total assets under management (AUM), and of the top 5 banks three are based in USA and two in Switzerland. The biggest private bank in the world is UBS Wealth Management.
- The biggest retail banks in the world banks are sometimes referred to as “bricks-and-mortar” or “street-level” banks, in that they have a physical presence of branch structures accessible to the public. Over the past decade, the degree of dependence on physical access rather than electronic access has largely reversed, but the traditional banks are still largely the major players in the world of retail banking.
Of the ranking of the biggest banks in the world, with the top 30 retail banks ranked by market capitalization:
- 9 are based in the USA
- 6 in China
- 3 in Canada
- 2 each in Japan, UK and Australia
- 1 each in Spain, France, Russia, India, Brazil and Holland.
What is the largest bank in the world?
Industrial and Commercial Bank Of China Ltd
