According to S&P Global Market Intelligence's latest global bank rankings, the world's five largest banks are all based in Asia. The sixth ranked bank also relies heavily on Asia for revenue and growth.
S&P Global Market Intelligence ranks the largest banks in the world by converting their total assets into U.S. dollars using the exchange rate as of the end of the period measured.
Chinese headquartered banks made up the top four, with a Japanese based lender taking fifth spot. Most banks were ranked by total assets as of Dec. 31, 2015. The previous ranking was published in August 2015 and ranked most banks by total assets as of March 31, 2015.
China Dominates
The three largest banks in the world continued to be Beijing-based Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp. and Agricultural Bank of China with total year-end 2015 assets calculated at $3.421 trillion, $2.826 trillion and $2.740 trillion, respectively.
Bank of China, which is also based in Beijing, rose to No. 4 from No. 5 in the previous ranking, with total assets of $2.590 trillion. Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group moved up to take fifth spot with $2.458 trillion.
London's Asian Bank
The next bank on the list at number 6 was London-based HSBC Holdings, the company's total assets dropped to $2.410 trillion from $2.670 trillion. In the previous ranking, HSBC was the only bank in the top five that was not headquartered in China. However the bank is pinning its hopes for revenue and growth in the Asian region.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. continued to be the largest U.S.-based bank despite falling by one spot to No. 7 in the global ranking, but it would rank No. 2 if it followed the same accounting principles as the Chinese banks.
