Global banking ranking, with multiple banks in China ranking first

Not long ago, the global financial crisis changed the global banking landscape. Europe's financial industry is weak, while China's major banks are growing rapidly. Yesterday, bankers published a survey of the world's top 1000 banks, showing that the profits of 1000 large banks last year amounted to 920 billion US dollars, hitting a new high. The total pre-tax profits of China's major banks amounted to $292 billion, accounting for 32% of the global profits of the banking industry.

Four major Chinese banks ranked top 10 in the world

Yesterday, bankers in the UK published statistics on the profits and capital strength of the world's top 1000 banks. In 2013, the total profits of the world's 1000 banks increased by 23% from the previous year, reaching the highest level ever. The ranking list of thousands of banks shows two trends: one is the continuous growth of China's banking industry and the other is the decline of euro zone banks.

The total pre-tax profits of China's major banks amounted to $292 billion, accounting for 32% of the global profits of the banking industry. In 2007 before the financial crisis, the figure was only 4%. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank, and Bank of China are the four most profitable banks in China, and the capital strength of these four banks ranks among the top 10 in the world, ICBC's profits amounted to $55 billion.

The bankers magazine said that ICBC is still the world's most powerful Capital Bank, winning the title. ICBC's 2012 capital growth in 15% jumped from the third place in the previous year to the first place. China Construction Bank's capital strength level jumped from fifth place to second place, and the third to fifth were JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and HSBC Holdings.

Weak in Europe, strong in the United States

According to the data published by bankers, the total profits of the world's 1000 banks are close to the level before the international financial crisis. However, the operating environment of banks varies greatly, this results in uneven profit distribution. The global banking landscape has been rewritten. Apart from the rise of China, the US banking industry continues to maintain a strong momentum, but the euro zone has not returned to its pre-crisis level. Especially for European banks, due to the difficult operating environment and deteriorating asset quality, the amount of capital consumed is too large. Among the 1000 banks in the world, euro zone banks accounted for only 3% of the global bank profits, far below 2008 before the financial crisis in 25%. Among them, Italy's banks suffered a total loss of up to $35 billion, making it the worst performing country in the world. Banks in Japan made $64 billion in profits last year, accounting for 7% of the world's total. Banking in Canada, France, and Australia both earned $39 billion in profits, and the levels in Brazil and the UK were $26 billion and $22 billion respectively.

In 2013, banks in the United States made a total profit of $183 billion, accounting for 20% of the world's total profits. Wells Fargo outputted other American banks with a profit of $32 billion. This year, Wells Fargo has jumped to become the world's largest bank with a market value of about $275 billion, about $75 billion more than ICBC, as earnings continue to rise.

The growth rate of China's banking industry began to decline

Although China's banking industry has been doing well in the past few years and ICBC has become the world's top banks, China's banking industry is facing a transformation.

Wen bin, a financial expert, said that the rapid development of China's banking industry over the past decade has benefited from China's economy and non-market interest rates. However, the era in which the banking industry can make profits by expanding its assets has ended, and the growth rate will slow down and may even experience negative growth.

According to a report released yesterday by the China Banking Association, the slowdown in the overall scale of China's banking industry will become the norm in 2014, and the net profit growth is expected to fall further to around 9%, the pressure on non-performing loans has increasingly become the biggest uncertainty that swallowed up profits in 2014.