At the top end of China’s banking sector, there seems to be little fluctuation in business over the past few years. The state-owned banks have dominated the Top 1000 World Banks ranking for several years, and despite slowdowns in their Tier 1 capital growth, they remain comfortably the best capitalised in the world. A look at the smaller end of China’s 4000-strong banking industry reveals a different story, however.
China’s big four banks, namely ICBC, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank, hold Rmb72,000bn ($10,200bn) between them, representing almost 40% of China’s total deposits. While they can use their substantial coffers to protect themselves from the current economic downturn, the same cannot be said for their smaller, and much more exposed, rural and commercial counterparts.
