World’s Biggest Banks 2023 (2024)

Author: David Sanders

This year’s ranking reflects dramatic balance-sheet declines at some of the world’s biggest banks.

Global Finance’s World’s Safest Banks 2023 ranking offers a revealing snapshot of a watershed period in global banking. After years of expansion, aggregate assets of the 50 largest banks contracted 2% to $89 trillion (in most cases, our data captures year-end asset figures as of December 2022).

As many countries struggle to boost their sluggish economies, balance-sheet growth remains a challenge for their banking systems, given declining business volumes and lower demand for credit from retail and corporate clients in some jurisdictions. Underscoring the decline, the threshold for inclusion in this year’s ranking fell 3.7% to $736.5 billion, while 37 banks exceeded $1 trillion in assets, down from 40 last year.

Once again, Chinese banks take the top four spots, placing a total of 15 institutions in our ranking. The top four are all state-owned banks that facilitate Beijing’s economic policy through massive infrastructure projects and other initiatives; their balance sheets grew approximately 3% on average in 2022. The remaining 11 Chinese banks posted negative growth in aggregate, possibly reflecting China’s slowing growth rate: GDP expanded only 3% last year, well below its 5.5% stated target for 2022.

The banking sector in other countries that recorded less than 3% GDP growth, including the US, Japan, Germany and France—also felt the effects. Other banks suffering notable shifts in this year’s rankings include Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo, which fell four places as its balance sheet contracted by 13.9% year-over-year; and the UK’s NatWest Group, which fell three spots, reflecting a 17.3% asset-base decline. BBVA is a new entrant; and Credit Suisse disappears from our ranking, reflecting its March takeover by UBS.