China continues dominating the highest positions of The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking. In 2016, for the first time in the history of the Top 1000, four out of the top five lenders are Chinese. The odd one out is US bank JPMorgan Chase in third place, which is followed by Bank of China in fourth and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), which moved up from sixth place in the 2015 ranking to fifth.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tops the overall Top 1000 World Banks ranking as well as the China list for the fourth consecutive year. China Construction Bank follows in second place in both rankings for the third year running. Their respective year-on-year Tier 1 capital growth went from $248.6bn to $274.4bn and $202.1bn to $220bn in 2015.
The top six banks in the China rankings have remained unchanged in the country ranking. Bank of China and ABC's respective Tier 1 capital increased from $184.2bn to $198bn and from $167.7bn to $185.6bn.
Commercial lender Bank of Communications and joint-stock commercial bank China Merchants Bank follow in position five and six in the China ranking – unchanged since 2015. However, Bank of Communications jumped four places to 13th position in the global ranking. China Merchants Bank has also improved its standing in the global ranking. Since the 2014 rankings, the lender has moved up from 36th to 27th.
Meanwhile, joint-stock commercial bank Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB) has overtaken China Citic to take the seventh spot in the 2016 China ranking. In this year’s rankings, SPDB’s Tier 1 capital grew from $42.8bn to $49.1bn, whereas China Citic’s increased from $43.2bn to $49bn.
There is also a new entrant – Bank of Nanjing – in China’s country ranking. The lender’s Tier 1 capital grew by 34% to $8bn in 2015, bringing the bank up to 152nd in the global ranking, from 201st. Further down the country ranking, China Zheshang Bank moved up four places to 21st and Bank of Ningbo gained one position to finish 23rd.
Within the China ranking, Bank of Tangshan, based in the north-eastern province of Hebei, recorded the highest year-on-year increase in Tier 1 capital by far at 124.35%. Although far below this performance, even the bottom bank among the highest movers in China (Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank) recorded a chunky Tier 1 capital annual increase of 44.82% in 2015. This lender is based in the north-eastern province of Jilin.
In terms of the top five Chinese banks by return on capital, Bank of Taizhou of Zhejiang province is the lender with the highest value at 31.73%.
