Money isn’t everything, yet it is an essential component of modern life. And the money is usually obtained from a bank. In this article we’ve compiled the list of some of the biggest banks in the world.
Banks are financial institutions that offer a wide range of services and products, including deposit management, lending, wealth management, currency exchange, and investment banking. Individual consumers, corporations, and a variety of different sorts of institutional clients are among the clientele of these banks. In the last several decades, the concept of a commercial bank has changed substantially.
Big banks now provide savings and checking accounts, certificates of deposit, loans, and other services to its traditional clientele, who include individuals and both large and small businesses. Many of them also have investment banking companies that include underwriting of stock offerings, brokerage, and M&A advising services to corporate and institutional customers.
The world’s largest banks are also among the world’s largest corporations. Indeed, many have become so large that they can no longer fail without bringing the entire economy down with them. They employ millions of people, and banking occupations (such as bank tellers) are still in high demand.
Table of Contents
The following list indicates which of the thousands of banks throughout the world are now among the biggest banks in the world –
1. Industrial & Commercial Bank Of China
Total Assets: $3.47 Trillion
The largest of the Big Four is China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank. It is the world’s largest financial institution in terms of deposits and assets, as well as one of the world’s largest corporations. This is a state-owned and subsidised enterprise, like the other Big Four, which makes it impossible to separate the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China’s assets from those of the Chinese government as a whole. Calling this the world’s largest bank is like referring to the United States Army as the world’s largest security force; both are correct, but the Pinkertons are treated unfairly.
2. China Construction Bank Corporation
Total Assets: $3.3 Trillion
China’s second-largest bank also happens to be the world’s second biggest. The China Construction Bank Corporation has a total asset value of $3.02 trillion. CCB was established in 1954 and is one of China’s oldest banks. Bank of America wanted to expand its operations in China in 2005. As a result, it bought a 9% interest in CCB. That, on the other hand, did not work out so well. During the US financial crisis in 2009, BOA had to sell a large portion of its holdings. Bank of America sold its remaining stake in CCB in 2013 and now concentrates its Asian activities in Hong Kong.
3. Agricultural Bank of China
Total Assets: $3.2 Trillion
AgBank, the third biggest bank in the world and one of the ten largest corporations on the earth, is the next of China’s “Big Four” banks. Agbank, which was founded in 1951, has offices in Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, New York, London, and other major cities across the world. It employs about 444,000 people and is fully controlled by the government, with headquarters in Beijing. It has a global customer base of 320 million retail consumers and 2.7 million corporate clients, all of whom are served by one of its 24,000 locations. AgBank went public in 2010, becoming the world’s largest ever IPO at the time, a record that has since been surpassed by Alibaba.
4. Bank of China Ltd
Total Assets: $3.09 Trillion
The Bank of China is the oldest of China’s four major banks. The bank was established in 1912, long before the country’s Communist revolution. The bank is currently owned by the communist Chinese government, although it remains one of the world’s largest financial institutions. Apart from China, the Bank of China is becoming more active in Hong Kong and Macau. Investment banking, insurance, and investing services, as well as personal loans, credit cards, mortgages, and asset and debt management, are all available through the bank. The Chinese government owns around 70 percent of the corporation.
5. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
Total Assets: $2.9 Trillion
This bank was founded lately through the merger of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and the UFJ Bank. For a brief while in the 1990s, it was even the world’s largest bank. Although Mitsubishi Bank is primarily focused on Japan, about 40% of its revenue comes from outside the nation. This allows it to maintain a significant position on the global stage while maintaining the majority of its assets considerably closer to home. Commercial banking, trust banking, international finance, and asset management are only some of the financial and investment services offered by the organisation.
