World’s Safest Banks 2024: World’s Biggest Banks

Global Finance’s 2024 ranking of the world’s 50 largest banks highlights institutions that have built powerful franchises in their respective markets, with extensive rosters of corporate, commercial, and retail clients. Their sheer size makes them industry leaders, and by leveraging thier diverse banking platforms they have grown their balance sheets.

Additionally, banks that earned a place in our 2024 ranking are highly influential in shaping the industry’s best practices, with the deep resources needed to attract top talent and develop innovative products and services.

Balance sheets for the top 50 expanded 4% in 2023, giving them aggregate assets of $92.8 trillion: a turnaround following a 2% decline for last year’s winners.

Chinese banks have consistently ranked as the world’s largest; this year, they hold the top four positions in our ranking, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on top at more than $6.2 trillion in assets. The top four banks averaged 11% asset growth and the 15 Chinese banks in the top 50 posted an average 6% year-over-year (YoY) increase.

In Japan, the three banks included in our ranking—Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Mizuho—all suffered an average 5% balance sheet contraction in 2023, which could be seen as a reflection of the country’s difficulty sustaining economic growth.

Euro area economies had similar challenges, with an average of less than 1% GDP growth in 2023, according to the IMF. The 14 eurozone banks in our top 50 averaged a 1% increase in assets. YoY changes include new entrants Banque Federative du Credit Mutuel at No. 47 and State Bank of India at No. 49, replacing Norinchukin Bank and CaixaBank.