The China growth story has been underpinned by the meteoric rise of its banks, with its lenders now occupying the top four spots in The Banker’s annual Top 1000 World Banks ranking.
In the past five years, the 12 Chinese mega-banks – those with more than $500bn in assets as of the end of 2017 – have boosted their aggregate balance sheet by almost 40%. In comparison, the six US mega-banks have added just 7% over the same timescale, while the five UK mega-lenders’ aggregate balance sheet has contracted by 21%.
