Beijing is the world’s largest international financial centre (IFC) by bank assets, Tier 1 capital and pre-tax profits, according to figures from The Banker Database, reinforcing China’s dominant position in terms of the size of its lenders, based on their reported annual figures.
Beijing is home to ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China, the world’s four biggest names by assets and Tier 1 capital and four of the top six by pre-tax profits. The financial centres of Shanghai and Shenzhen are also in the top 20, making China the only country to feature three hubs in the rankings, with all three IFCs present in all three tables.
New York comes a distant second in both the Tier 1 capital and pre-tax profits tables, and third in terms of assets. Tokyo comes second in the assets ranking and third in the Tier 1 capital table, while it is seventh by pre-tax profits.
London and Paris also performed strongly. In the Tier 1 capital ranking, London is in fourth place, closely followed by Paris; in the assets table, the positions are reversed, with the French hub ranking ahead of its UK peer. The two switch back in the pre-tax profits list, putting London ahead of Paris.
While there is a fair representation of emerging market centres in the tables, most hail from Asia. Moscow appears in both the Tier 1 capital and pre-tax profits but is the only central and eastern European hub. São Paulo is the only Latin American and Caribbean hub to appear, taking 14th place in the pre-tax profits ranking. Meanwhile, no African or Middle Eastern centres made the cut.
The Banker Database analyses annual financial statements of about 4000 banks from across the world. Values in the tables are for banks that were large enough to be included in The Banker’s annual Top 1000 World Banks ranking.
