In what seems to have become a traditional dance, the top three banks in North America have switched places once again. Citigroup has, this year, reclaimed its crown, just pipping JPMorgan Chase to the top slot and pushing Bank of America (BAC), last year’s occupant of pole position, into third place.

As an illustration of how badly the rest of the North American banking sector has been hit in the past year, Citigroup has retaken the top spot when everything seems to be shrinking: its Tier 1 capital is down by 1.8% at $89.2bn (dragging down its capital/ asset ratio by 0.75% to 4.08%), pre-tax profits have plummeted by 94.3%, profits on average capital were just 1.9% and return on assets have shrunk to an even more shocking 0.08%.

BAC’s Tier 1 capital has slumped further, dropping by 8.4% to $83.3bn, despite its acquisition, last year, of LaSalle Bank and related assets for $21bn, which increased its footprint by 411 branches, 17,000 commercial bank clients and 1.4 million retail customers. BAC figures are more mixed: pre-tax profits were down by 34.6% but profit on average capital was at a more respectable 24%.

It may have come in second but JPMorgan Chase steals all of the North American thunder. Of the top three houses, JPMorgan Chase – the only large universal bank with a bulge bracket investment banking business to emerge from the credit crisis relatively unscathed – is the only one to have increased its Tier 1 capital, which grew from $81,055m last year to $88,746m. Equally positive, pre-tax profits were up by 14.7% and profits on average capital were a healthy 26.9%. JPMorgan’s Top 1000 listing does not include any figures related to its rescue acquisition of Bear Stearns.

While aggregate figures for North America reveal that Tier 1 capital as a proportion of assets has risen slightly – driven largely by increases at Canadian banks including Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal – overall, this year’s figures spell out a dispiriting picture for North American banking. Most worrying is the fact that total profits from US banks account for only 14% of aggregate total profits in the Top 1000, down from 24% last year and a long way from the incredible 49% of total profits they accounted for in 2003.

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