The world’s biggest banks are, well, downright huge. It’s easy to overlook just how much money the largest banking firms are sitting on, but the truth is that billions — and sometimes even trillions — are flowing through their coffers throughout the year.
On the surface, the numbers can be pretty galling. After all, the biggest bank in the world has more assets under management than the gross domestic product of every country save for the United States, China and Japan. But, it’s also important to put those numbers in context. After all, providing a safe haven for assets is the main reason for the existence of banks. Not to mention, the assets are largely balanced out by similarly huge amounts of debt in most cases. JPMorgan Chase might have $2.5 trillion in AUM, but it also has $2.4 trillion in liabilities.
Still, none of this changes the fact that the largest banks wield a huge — and potentially dangerous — degree of influence over the global economy, so knowing the biggest players can be essential to understanding financial markets. Read on to see just how much the world’s largest banks have under their control.
