China’s leading banks remain gargantuan on a global scale. In The Banker’s 2015 Top 1000 World Banks ranking by Tier 1 capital, four of the top 10 lenders are Chinese, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) tops the ranking for the third consecutive year. In 2010, it was the only Chinese bank in the top 10, in seventh place with $91.11bn of Tier 1 capital. By the end of 2014, that figure had almost tripled to $248.61bn.
Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), China Construction Bank (CCB) and Bank of China, all of which feature in this year's top 10, have had an equally impressive rise. CCB is the second largest bank in the world for the second year running, Bank of China has jumped from seventh to fourth position and ABC has also climbed three places, taking it to sixth position. Despite this significant growth, the environment that Chinese banks are operating in is far from straightforward. Local market participants say China has entered a 'new normal', with its gross domestic product (GDP) growth having slowed to between 7.3% and 7.7% in the past three years – the lowest level since 1999, according to the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook Database – from 9.3% growth in 2011.
