Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is not only the largest bank in China in terms of capital and assets, it is the sixth largest in the world in The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks 2011. It is also the most profitable bank in the world and chairman Jiang Jianqing is not slow to bring this up. With pre-tax profits reaching $32.5bn in 2010, up 28.8% year on year, Mr Jiang is keen to add that profits in the first quarter of 2011 were up 29% on last year at $8.3bn, providing a stunning 25.4% return on equity. ICBC is also the world’s largest bank in terms of market capitalisation, reaching $233.5bn at the end of 2010.
