Banks With The Highest Market Capitalization Values

Corporate headquarters of Wells Fargo and Company in San Francisco, California, United States.
Corporate headquarters of Wells Fargo and Company in San Francisco, California, United States.

The Banks with the Highest Market Capitalization value refers to their highest total market value of outstanding company shares. Market capitalization is determined by multiplying outstanding shares of the company by the market price of a single share. Market capitalization value is used as an indicator of public opinion on the net worth of a company and also to determine the stock valuation of a company. Market capitalization has been used for decades to rank companies rather than the use of sales or total asset figures. Determining company size is paramount because it helps in allocation of the asset. Several banks around the world rank high because of the market capitalization value. Some of these banks are briefly discussed below.

The Banks With The Highest Market Capitalization Value

Wells Fargo and Company

Wells Fargo and Company has its headquarters in San Francisco, California in the US. It is an international banking and financial service holding company established in early 1852 by William Fargo and Henry Wells hence the name. The company ranks first in the world with a market capitalization of $254.19 billion and the US third-largest bank by assets. The company which operates in 35 countries has 8,700 retail branches and an additional 13,000 automated teller machines (ATMs) with over 71 million customers worldwide. The bank has been named the world’s most valuable bank twice beating a pool of 500 banks.

Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)

Industrial Commercial Bank of China is the second largest bank in terms of market capitalization value of $226.55 billion and the bank with the highest asset value in the world as of 2015. ICBC is owned by the state and was initially established as a limited company in Beijing in 1984. The bank has formed a strong customer base, market competitiveness, market innovation and diversified business structure across Asia, Europe, America, and Oceania. ICBC has a total of 490 million personal customers and 5,320 thousand corporate clients spread across its branches worldwide.

JP Morgan Chase & Co

JP Morgan Chase and Company is the largest bank in the US in terms asset value but the second largest and world’s third largest with a market capitalization value of $217.79 billion as at June 2015. Morgan brand specializes in asset management, private and investment banking while on the other hand Chase brand is for credit card services, retail, and commercial banking. The bank was founded in 2000 and has its headquarters in New York with several branches worldwide

China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB)

China Construction Bank Corporation, whose headquarters is in Beijing and founded in 1954, is the second largest bank by market capitalization in China and the fourth in the world with a market capitalization value of US $155.97 billion. CCB is also the 6th largest company worldwide. CCB has 13,629 branches in China and several other branches in Sydney, Tokyo, Melbourne, New York, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Frankfurt, and Singapore. CCB has a total asset of US $2,939.15 billion offering products such as consumer and corporate banking, investment, finance and insurance banking, private equity, mortgages and credit card.

Significance of Market Capitalization

Market capitalization is mainly influenced by the investor’s perception and response to information concerning a stock. Negative news will most likely affect the market capitalization value negatively as investors will be quick to dispose of their stock while positive news affects the market capitalization values upwards. Financial performance of a company will also influence market capitalization rate. Profitable companies will likely attract more investors compared to companies that report losses. Banks with high market capitalization rates have diversified their investments with the aim of improving their performance. Also, most of these banks are listed on the stock exchange marked for the public.

The Banks With The Highest Market Capitalization Value

RankName of The BankMarket capitalization (US$ billion)
1 Wells Fargo & Co254.19
2 Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)226.55
3 JP Morgan Chase & Co217.79
4 China Construction Bank Corporation155.97
5 Agricultural Bank of China155.04
6 Bank of China144.16
7 Bank of America142.39
8 HSBC Holdings128.91
9 Citigroup Inc126.74
10 Commonwealth Bank of Australia99.69
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